UC-NRLF 


307 


GIFT  OF 


CONTENTS 


PAGE. 

ADDRESS — Ex-Gov.  Alexander  Ramsey 5 

ADDRESS — Major-General  Wesley  Merritt,  U.  S.  A 9 

ADDRESS — Gov.  Knute  Nelson 1 1 

ADDRESS — Archbishop  John  Ireland,  St.  Paul 13 

LINCOLN — THE  GREAT  COMMONER — Bishop  Charles  H.  Fow 
ler 16 

LINCOLN,   THE   STATESMAN.  AND   PATRIOT — President   Cyrus 

Northrop,  University  of  Minnesota 23 

LINCOLN,  THE  MAN — Bishop  Mahlon  N.  Gilbert,  St.  Paul.  .  .  28 

ADDRESS — Rev.  Edward  P.  Ingersoll,  St.  Paul 30 

ADDRESS — Henry  Watterson,  Louisville,  Ky 35 

ADDRESS — Rev.  John  Paul  Egbert,  St.  Paul 38 

ADDRESS — Bishop  Mahlon  N.  Gilbert 43 

ADDRESS — President  Cyrus  Northrop 45 

ADDRESS — General  John  C.  Black,  U.  S.  Vols 49 

ADDRESS — Archbishop  John  Ireland,  St.  Paul 64 

ADDRESS — Brigadier-General  Edward  S.  Bragg,  U.  S.  Vols.  .  67 

ADDRESS — General  Robert  N.  Adams,  U.  S.  Vols 77 

ADDRESS — Rev.  Pleasant  Hunter,  Minneapolis 79 

ADDRESS — Robert  G.  Evans,  U.  S.  District  Attorney,  Minne 
apolis    84 

ADDRESS — Rev.  L.  H.  Hallock,  Minneapolis 92 

ADDRESS — Sen.  Gilbert  A.  Pierce 95 

ADDRESS — General  John  B.  Sanborn,  U.  S.  Vols 100 

ADDRESS — Daniel  Fish,  Attorney-at-Iaw,  Minneapolis 105 

ADDRESS — Sen.  Hiram  F.  Stevens..  112 


PAGE. 

TYPICAL  AMERICANS — By  Capt.  Henry  A.  Castle,  St.  Paul.  .  .    122 

ADDRESS — Gov,  Samuel  R.  Van  Sant 134 

ADDRESS — Rev.  J.  S.  Montgomery,  Minneapolis 135 

ADDRESS — 'William  G.  White,  Attorney-at-Law 138 

ADDRESS — M.  D.  Grover,  Attorney-at-Law,  St.  Paul 140 

ADDRESS — Capt.  Edwin  E.  Woodman,  U.  S.  Vols 150 

ADDRESS — President  Cyrus  Northrop 154 

ADDRESS — Bishop  Samuel  C.  Edsall,  Minnesota 161 

THE  VENGEANCE  OF  THE  FLAG — Henry  D.  Esterbrook,  Attor 
ney-at-Law,  New  York  City 162 

LINCOLN,    THE    LEADER — Richard    W'atson     Gilder,     New 

York  City 169 

ADDRESS — Bishop  Samuel  Fallows 186 

ADDRESS — Rev.  Henry  C.  Swearingen,  St.  Paul. 193 

ADDRESS — Gov.  Adolph  O.  Eberhart 202 

THE  HEART  OF  LINCOLN — Lieut.   Ell  Torrance,   Past  Com- 
mander-in-Chief,  G.  A.  R 203 


ADDRESSES 


IN  MEMORY  OF 


ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  MINNESOTA  COMMANDERY 

.  r  M    o  "<"  a  c  v 

OF    THE    LOYAL    LEGION    OF    THE     UNITED    STATES 

1903-1910 


Published  for  the   Cammandery  under  direction  of 
C.   G.  Schulz,   Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction 


- 


FOREWORD. 

The  personal  element  in  history  always  appeals  to  children. 
How  Abraham  Lincoln  looked  and  what  he  did  are  of  more 
interest  to  them  than  the  origin,  development,  and  destruction 
of  slavery.  Only  as  the  institution  of  slavery  has  a  direct 
bearing  upon  the  personal  life  of  the  great  emancipator  or 
of  some  other  character,  does  it  awaken  their  interest  and 
hold  their  attention. 

The  adult  mind  studies  policies,  and  the  growth  and  develop 
ment  of  ideas,  and  in  their  realization  observes  the  personal 
achievements  of  the  men  and  women  whose  lives  have  been 
affected  by  the  working  out  of  the  world's  great  problems. 
For  a  time  the  abstract  idea  may  be  paramount  in  the  adult 
mind,  but  the  human  element  by  which  it  has  been  moulded, 
or  which  it  has  moulded,  must  of  necessity  excite  the  interest 
and  rivet  the  attention. 

The  republic  is  established,  but  the  personality  of  George 
Washington  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  achievement. 
The  constitution  is  interpreted,  but  the  life  work  of  its  master 
interpreter,  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  is  indissolubly  merged  in 
its  broad  application.  The  union  is  upheld,  but  the  most  pow 
erful  eloquence  in  its  behalf  is  centered  in  the  great  patriot, 
Daniel  \Yebster.  The  republic  is  saved,  the  constitution  vin 
dicated,  the  union  make  indissoluble,  but  the  achievement  is 
forever  linked  with  the  personality  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

In  the  hope  that  this  collection  of  addresses  may  associate 
in  the  minds  of  our  youth  the  great  achievement  with  the 
mighty  man,  this  book  is  sent  forth.  As  the  contents  breathe 
the  love  of  the  man,  they  instill  an  admiration  for  what  he 
accomplished,  and  establish  patriotism  on  the  only  founda 
tion  on  which  it  can  thrive — knowledge  of  our  government  and 
its  history,  with  an  appreciation  for  what  they  stand. 

C.  G.  SCHULZ, 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction. 

St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  June  17,  1910. 


421113 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 


BY   ALEXANDER   RAMSEY,    EX-GOVERNOR   OF   MINNESOTA. 
(Read  February  14,  1893.) 


Upon  persistent  request,  I  have  jotted  down  some  reminis 
cences  of  the  administration  of  him  who  will  undoubtedly,  by 
future  generations,  be  considered  the  savior,  as  Washington 
is  designated  the  founder,  of  the  Republic. 

***** 

Toward  the  close  of  my  last  term  as  a  member  of  the  United 
States  House  of  Representatives  from  one  of  the  districts  of 
Pennsylvania,  I  boarded  at  the  house  of  a  widow  who  lived 
on  what  was  then  known  as  the  Duff  Green  Row,  on  East 
First  street,  south  of  B  street,  facing  the  east  front  of  the 
Capitol,  now  pulled  down  to  make  way  for  the  magnificent 
library  building  ordered  by  Congress.  Duff  Green,  after  whom 
the  row  was  named,  had  been  a  fiery  editor  and  ardent  admirer 
of  President  Jackson,  and  the  fierceness  of  his  sentences  had 
involved  him  in  more  than  one  duel.  One  day  at  my  board 
ing  house  a  stranger  appeared,  and  I  was  told  that  he  was 
Abraham  Lincoln,  the  only  Whig  member  of  Illinois,  who  had 
been  elected  to  the  next,  which  was  the  Thirteenth,  Congress. 

He  seemed  to  be  on  a  visit  of  observation  before  taking 
his  seat,  but  he  made  no  distinct  impression  upon  me,  and  I 
think  during  his  term  as  a  member  of  Congress  no  occasion 
arose  to  call  forth  any  display  of  that  force  of  character  of 
which  he  afterwards  proved  himself  so  amply  possessed. 

His  ability  was  brought  out  in  his  debates  with  Stephen  A. 
Douglas.  By  his  clear  logic,  quick  repartee,  and  good  humor, 
his  fellow  citizens  were  convinced  that  he  was  more  of  a 
man  than  they  had  hitherto  supposed  him  to  be. 

During  the  second  week  of  April,  1861,  I  was  in  Washing 
ton  on  some  business  as  the  governor  of  Minnesota;  and  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  who  had  been  ,steadily  rising  in  the  estimation  of 
the  country  since  first  I  saw  him,  some  fourteen  years  before,  had 
the  month  before  been  inaugurated  as  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America. 


6  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

On  Saturday,  the  13th  of  April,  news  was  received  that  the 
insurgents  at  Charleston  had  opened  fire  on  Fort  Sumter.  That 
night  the  lobbies  of  the  hotels  were  full  of  excited  men,  anxious 
to  obtain  additional  news.  After  breakfast,  Sunday  morning, 
I  went  to  the  war  department,  and,  when  ushered  into  Secre 
tary  Cameron's  room,  found  him  standing,  with  hat  on,  and 
a  bundle  of  papers  in  his  hand.  We  had  been  fellow  towns 
men  and  friends  for  many  years  and  he  quickly  said,  "I  have 
no  time  to  stop;  I  am  on  my  way  to  see  the  President.  What 
do  you  want?"  Wrhen  I  told  that  I  came  to  offer  one  thou 
sand  men  in  behalf  of  Minnesota  to  meet  the  emergency  that 
had  arisen,  he  continued,  "Hurry !  write  it  in  official  form,  and 
I  will  take  it  over  to  the  executive  mansion." 

Messrs.  Nicolay  and  Hay,  I  am  informed,  mention  that  the 
President  was  much  encouraged  by  the  proffer  of  a  regiment 
so  soon  from  a  state  so  new,  and  then  so  remote  from  the 
capital.  Returning  to  St.  Paul  about  ten  days  after,  I  found 
there  had  been  the  fullest  response  to  my  pledge.  The  greatest 
enthusiasm  prevailed,  not  only  in  the  cities,  but  throughout  the 
state;  and  on  the  2d  day  of  May  I  telegraphed  the  secretary  of 
war  that  a  regiment  was  organized  and  awaiting  orders. 

From  May,  1861,  until  my  election  as  United  States  senator 
in  1863,  I  was  wholly  occupied  in  raising  regiments,  not  only 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  but  for  the  protection  of 
the  frontiers  of  Minnesota  from  the  inroads  of  the  Sioux  In 
dians,  who  had  suddenly  risen  and  scalped  hundreds  of  men, 
women,  and  children  in  sparsely  settled  districts.  The  depart 
ure  of  so  many  able-bodied  men  to  subdue  the  rebellion  had 
quickened  the  desire  to  raise  the  war-whoop  upon  the  part 
of  these  Indians. 

When  I  again  returned  to  Washington  to  reside,  every 
thing  was  changed.  The  deep  green  foliage,  with  birds  flitting 
among  the  branches,  which  had  surrounded  the  city  in  sum 
mer — a  fringe  of  beauty — had  disappeared  and  the  hills  on 
every  side  frowned  with  fortifications  bristling  with  cannon. 
The  boarding  house  in  which  I  had  met  so  many  pleasant  people 
had  become  a  military  prison,  known  as  "Carroll  prison";  and 
not  far  distant,  the  building  which  had  been  erected  as  a  tem 
porary  capitol  was  also  designated  the  "Old  Capitol  prison"; 
and  here  many  captured  officers  of  the  insurgent  armies,  and 
treasonable  women,  during  the  war  were  accommodated,  and 
charged  neither  for  board  nor  lodging. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  / 

President  Lincoln,  by  his  simplicity  of  manner,  compre 
hensive  views,  absence  of  partisanship,  and  great  common  sense, 
commanded  admiration  and  confidence.  On  the  5th  of  -July, 
1864,  with  Senator  Chandler  and  wife,  Senator  Wade  and 
wife,  Senator  Sprague  of  Rhode  Island,  and  Senator  Wilkin 
son  of  Minnesota,  I  left  Washington,  and  about  six  o'clock 
the  next  afternoon  the  steamboat  on  which  we  had  embarked 
had  reached  City  Point,  the  headquarters  of  Gen.  Grant,  up 
on  whom  we  called. 

The  next  day,  the  7th,  under  the  escort  of  Chas.  A.  Dana, 
the  assistant  secretary  of  war,  we  proceeded  by  railroad  to  the 
headquarters  of  William  F.  (known  in  the  army  as  "Baldy") 
Smith,  within  about  a  mile  of  Petersburg,  and  here,  among 
others,  met  Gen.  Thomas  H.  Neill. 

The  houses  and  steeples  of  the  churches  in  Petersburg  wrere 
in  sight,  and,  with  Gen.  Martindale,  we  moved  to  the  front, 
entered  the  trenches  and  passed  behind  the  breastworks,  the 
balls  from  the  enemy's  pickets  at  the  time  striking  near  by. 

On  the  8th,  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler  and  staff  of  about  a  dozen 
officers  called  upon  us  and  took  us  along  the  lines  about  five 
miles,  and,  upon  our  return,  entertained  us.  Upon  the  9th  of 
July  we  took  leave  of  Gen.  Grant.  Placid  and  silent  as  Grant 
\vas,  the  most  penetrating  of  the  committee  on  the  conduct 
of  the  war  could  never  have  suspected  that  Gen.  Lewis  Wal 
lace  had  evacuated  Frederick,  and  that  Baltimore  and  Wash 
ington  were  threatened  by  the  enemy. 

On  the  journey  back  to  Washington  the  steamboat  on 
which  we  were  was  at  different  times  passed  by  other  boats 
crowded  with  soldiers.  We  could  not  understand  the  move 
ment.  On  Sunday,  the  10th  day  of  July,  the  navy  yard  at 
Washington  was  reached  and  the  mystery  was  solved.  We 
were  told  that  the  rebels  under  Gens.  Early  and  Breckenridge 
were  moving  toward  the  city,  and  that  the  steamboats  we  had 
seen  hurrying  up  the  river  carried  portions  of  the  sixth  corps 
sent  to  meet  the  enemy. 

On  Tuesday,  with  others,  I  drove  out  to  Fort  Stevens  on 
the  north  side  of  the  city.  Gen.  Early  had  established  his 
headquarters  at  Silver  Spring,  the  residence  of  Francis  P. 
Blair — the  father  of  Montgomery  Blair,  the  postmaster  gen 
eral,  whose  house,  a  little  further  from  the  city,  was  burned. 

The  President  was  at  Fort  Stevens  this  afternoon,  also 
Mr.  Welles,  secretary  of  the  navy,  and  other  prominent  men. 


§  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

Some  of  the  Sixth  corps  made  a  sally,  and  for  a  time  there 
was  brisk  firing;  but  the  rebels  were  repulsed,  leaving  a  num 
ber  of  killed  and  wounded. 

President  Lincoln  entered  Richmond  on  the  4th  day  of 
April,  1865,  and  returned  to  the  executive  mansion  on  the  9th. 

On  the  10th  of  April,  accompanied  by  Senators  Norton 
and  Wilkinson,  I  visited  Richmond,  and  found  the  best  portion 
of  the  city  a  heap  of  smouldering  ruins;  went  at  night  to  the 
theater,  which  was  lighted  with  tallow  candles,  and  witnessed 
the  play  Macbeth.  It  was  not  until  the  morning  of  the  14th 
that  I  returned  to  Washington.  During  the  evening  of  that 
day  the  late  Benjamin  Thompson  of  St.  Paul,  came  to  my 
parlor  at  the  International  hotel  and  told  me  that  President 
Lincoln  had  been  shot  at  Ford's  Theater  by  J.  Wilkes  Booth, 
and  that  Secretary  Seward,  in  his  sick  chamber,  had  been 
dangerously  assaulted  by  another  conspirator.  It  was  difficult 
to  believe,  but  in  a  few  minutes  my  brother  Justus  arrived  and 
confirmed  the  statement,  having  been  at  the  theater  and  wit 
nessed  the  tragedy. 

The  President,  as  you  all  know,  expired  about  half-past  seven 
on  the  morning  of  Saturday,  the  15th  day  of  April,  in  a  house 
to  which  he  had  been  removed  from  the  theater  just  opposite. 

After  breakfast  of  that  day,  Senator  Foote  of  Vermont, 
conversed  with  me  and  suggested  that  immediate  steps  should 
be  taken  for  Vice-President  Johnson  to  enter  upon  the  duties 
of  president. 

With  him,  Senator  Yates  of  Illinois,  and  Senator  Stewart 
of  Nevada,  I  drove  to  the  Kirkwood  House,  where  Mr.  John 
son  had  rooms.  He  was  absent  at  the  time,  but  soon  returned, 
and  the  object  of  our  visit  was  made  known.  Chief  Justice 
Chase,  in  the  presence  of  about  ten  persons,  then  administered 
to  him  the  oath  of  office.  Not  the  slightest  jar  occurred  in 
the  administration  of  affairs.  Before  noon  sorrowing  people 
throughout  the  country  learned  that  though  the  president  was 
dead  the  government  still  lived.  And  the  nations  of  the  world 
for  the  first  time  realized  the  greatness  and  stability  of  the 
Republic  of  the  United  States  of  America. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 


BY   MAJOR-GENERAL  WESLEY   MERRITT,    U.    S.   A. 
(Read  February  14,  1893.) 


Not  all  of  you  have  heard,  perhaps,  that  the  first  Com- 
mandery  of  the  Loyal  Legion  was  established  in  Philadelphia 
upon  an  impulse  which  grew  out  of  the  death  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  In  the  midst  of  the  grief  of  a  mighty  nation,  mourn 
ing  the  loss  of  the  greatest  American  of  the  age,  a  few  officers 
who  had  served  their  country  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  met 
together  and  resolved  that  they  would  organize  a  society  to 
cherish  the  companionship  and  memories  of  the  war  and  do 
honor  for  all  time  to  the  brave  who  had  fallen,  mightiest  among 
whom  was  the  martyr  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy. 
From  this  sprang  the  Military  Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  now 
with  a  commandery  in  nearly  every  state  of  the  Union. 

Whatever  the  feelings  of  the  originators  of  our  order — and 
who  can  doubt  that  they  were  full  of  the  bitterness  of  death 
in  their  hearts? — we  can  say  today  that  we  meet  "with  malice 
toward  none  and  with  charity  for  all."  Under  these  condi 
tions  it  is  peculiarly  fitting  that  we  should  set  aside  the  meet 
ing  each  year  in  his  natal  month  to  commemorate  the  birth 
of  him  who 

"Was  a  type  of  the  true  elder  race, 
One  of  the  Plutrach's  men,  who  talked  with  us  face 
to  face." 

In  reviewing  the  program  of  the  meeting  this  evening, 
it  occurs  to  me  that  one  important  characteristic  of  the  many- 
sided  man  we  commemorate  has  been  omitted — that  is  Lin 
coln  as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy.  Those 
who  are  qualified  to  judge  have  assigned  no  secondary  place 
to  him  as  a  master  of  the  art  of  war.  His  great,  broad,  com 
mon  sense  came  to  his  assistance  in  the  decisions  of  questions 
of  policy  as  well  as  of  strategy.  When  he  resisted  the  counsel 
of  his  constitutional  advisers,  who  wanted  an  unsuccessful  gen 
eral  replaced  during  the  active  operations  of  a  campaign,  he 
urged,  in  a  single  sentence,  a  more  powerful  argument  against 


10  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

it  than  could  have  been  offered  in  hours  of  talk — "It  is  bad 
to  swap  horses  while  crossing  a  stream." 

Again,  when  one  of  his  generals  proposed  to  divide  his 
army  and  send  part  of  it  to  combat  the  Confederates  on  the 
farther  side  of  the  Rappahannock,  the  wise  commander  con 
veyed  volumes  of  the  art  of  war  by  saying:  "If  you  divide 
your  army,  you  will  be  like  a  bull  jumped  half  across  a  fence, 
who  can  neither  gore  to  the  front  nor  kick  in  the  other  direc 
tion." 

So  also,  he  wrote  to  Hooker,  who  was  talking  much  about 
lines  of  communication,  objectives,  and  lines  of  supply:  "Let 
your  objective  be  the  enemy's  army,  and  your  line  of  com 
munication  the  shortest  road  over  which  you  can  march  to 
fight  him.  Win  a  battle,  and  I  will  take  care  of  the  rest." 

Instances   like   these   might  be   mentioned   almost  without 
limit,    but    I    will   not   multiply   words    on   the   subject.     The 
speakers  tonight  will  do  their  share  to  properly  cherish  the 
memory  of  him  of  whom  an  American  poet  has  said : 
"His  was  no  lonely  mountain  peak  of  mind. 
Thrusting  to  thin  air  o'er  cloudy  bars, 

A  sea-mark  now,  now  lost  in  vapors  blind; 

Broad  prairie  rather,  level  lined, 

Fruitful  and  friendly  for  his  human  kind, 

Yet  also  known  to  Heaven,  and  friend  with  all  its  stars." 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  11 


ADDRESS. 

BY    KNUTE    NELSON,    GOVERNOR    OP    MINNESOTA. 
(Read  February  14,  1893.) 


The  institution  of  slavery  had  debased  the  white  people 
of  the  South,  and  had  given  them  a  white  peasant  class  not 
known  among  the  people  of  the  North.  This  peasantry,  though 
primitive,  rude,  and  unlettered,  was,  nevertheless,  in  many  es 
sentials  far  superior  to  its  counterpart  in  the  Old  World.  It 
was  courageous  to  a  high  degree,  intensely  democratic  in 
spirit,  and  charged  with  a  suppressed  intellectuality  that,  in 
isolated  cases  and  on  great  occasions,  asserted  itself.  From 
the  very  loins  of  this  class,  and  as  a  crystallization  of  all  the 
virile  vigor  that  was  in  it,  came/  Abraham  Lincoln — born  the 
American  peasant,  died  the  American  king.  ' 

His  parentage,  home,  and  surroundings  were  of  the  hum 
blest  kind ;  scarce  were  there  ever  humbler.  His  moral  and 
intellectual  environment  was  of  the  most  primitive  order,  as 
primitive  as  the  undeveloped  country  in  which  he  dwelt.  But 
the  embryo  of  true  life  and  vigorous  growth  was  in  him,  and 
so,  under  the  sunshine  and  dews  of  Heaven,  he  grew  in  the 
midst  of  the  barrenness  in  which  he  was  placed,  as  the  stout 
and  lofty  pine  grows  in  the  stony  cleft  of  the  craggy  and  hoary 
mountain,  slowly,  surely,  irresistibly  and  heavenward. 

His  development  from  childhood  to  manhood,  from  a  back 
woodsman  to  a  statesman,  was  a  saga,  simple  in  its  unity,  som 
ber  and  sad  in  its  texture,  but  inspiring  and  heroic  in  its  out 
lines  and  results.  From  Nolin  Creek  to  the  banks  of  the 
Sangamon,  narrow,  cheerless  and  rough  was  the  path.  A 
mother's  love  was  given  and  found  in  a  stepmother,  the  only 
sunshine  on  the  long  and  dreary  journey.  And  that  love,  with 
which  a  man  loves  but  once  in  his  life,  was  buried  in  the  grave 
of  Ann  Rutledge.  From  that  moment  love  claimed  and  was 
given  less,  and  duty  more,  and  from  that  moment  he  seemed 
dedicated  to  and  in  training  for  the  task  and  the  mission  that 
were  to  be  his.  Feeble  minds  assuage  grief  in  the  frivolous 
vanities  of  the  world;  but  strong  minds,  fortified  with  pure 
hearts  and  Godlike  consciences,  seek  relief  in  the  real  and  sub- 


12  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

stantial  battle  of  life,  where  the  turmoil  is  the  hottest  and  the 
strife  rages  the  fiercest.  Lincoln  was  the  true  embodiment  of 
this  class;  and  there  was  no  intellectual  battleground  so  cap 
tivating,  grand,  and  inviting  as  that  of  politics  in  the  Illinois 
of  his  day.  Gifted  and  equipped  by  nature,  steeled  in  the  rude 
school  of  the  frontiersman,  and  tempered  by  the  shadows  and 
sorrows  that  had  come  upon  him,  he  entered  the  arena  a 
trained  gladiator,  ready  to  do  battle  with  giants — and  there 
were  real  and  aggressive  giants  in  those  days.  But  for  the 
lack  of  a  living  issue,  the  strife  was  for  a  time  a  mere  skirmish 
on  the  outposts,  the  remote  prelude  to  the  great  drama  of 
the  century. 

From  the  shadows  and  dark  clouds  whence  came  our  hero, 
came  also,  in  battle  array,  the  great  anti-Christ,  slavery,  which 
was  to  be  subdued  and  conquered.  Slavery,  in  her  zeal,  pro 
jected  her  advance  guard  into  Kansas;  and  there  was  fought 
a  veritable  Inkerman — a  battle  of  stubborn  and  isolated  skirm 
ishes;  and  soon  along  the  entire  line,  from  Kansas  to  the  Ohio 
and  thence  to  the  Potomac,  there  was  a  mustering  of  clans 
and  an  outburst  of  firing  that  betokened  a  momentous  and 
prolonged  struggle.  In  these  preliminary  conflicts  there  were 
many  leaders,  and  Lincoln,  though  one  of  them,  was  not  re 
garded  by  all  as  the  foremost.  But,  on  the  eve  of  the  great 
battle,  none  disputed  his  chieftainship  of  the  mighty  hosts  of 
the  North.  "  He  was  the  heart  and  the  soul  of  all  our  people, 
with  faith  in  them,  in  himself,  in  the  cause,  and  in  God. 

Serious  and  sad  were  those  days  to  all  of  us,  but  most  of 
all  to  him,  and  it  made  him  more  serious  and  sad  than  ever. 
But  from  that  great  duty  entailed  upon  him  by  man  and  God, 
he  shrank  not  one  iota — no,  not  even  in  those  dark  days,  when 
bolder  men  than  he  doubted  and  quailed.  He  was  braver  and 
more  valiant  than  the  best  of  us,  because  his  faith  was  loftier 
and  more  boundless,  and  he  ennobled  the  strife  and  hallowed 
the  cause  of  the  Union  by  severing  the  last  shackles  of  the 
bondsmen. 

He  looms  up  through  the  vista  of  the  years  as  the  great 
spirit  of  that  mighty  whirlwind.  God  gave  him  to  work  out 
a  great  problem  in  the  moral  world.  His  task,  his  life,  and 
his  mission  were  Godlike;  his  death  was  that  of  a  martyr. 
He  sanctified  the  Union  to  us  and  to  our  posterity  for  all 
time  to  come. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  13 


ADDRESS. 


BY  JOHN  IRELAND,   ROMAN  CATHOLIC  ARCHBISHOP,   ST.   PAUL,  MINN. 
(Read  February  14,  1893.) 


Abraham  Lincoln  to  me  appears  the  model  product,  the 
honor  of  our  country.  He  was  born  a  child  of  the  people,  a 
child  of  modern  democracy,  and,  as  opportunities  offered,  he 
loomed  up  not  only  before  his  own  country,  but  before  the  nations 
of  the  world,  one  of  the  grandest  men  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

It  has  been  said,  in  reproach  to  democracy,  that  popular 
governments  are  not  capable  of  producing  great  men,  that 
they  are  generally  levelers,  bringing  out  but  mediocrity.  As 
we  see  in  Lincoln  and  in  hundreds  and  thousands  of  cases, 
wherever  there  is  the  need,  in  America,  the  great  man  appears 
to  fill  it.  During  my  late  visit  to  Europe  I  met  a  Russian  gen 
eral,  famed  in  his  country,  who  told  me  that  he  had  studied 
often  and  attentively  the  records  of  our  civil  war,  and  it  was 
always  to  him  an  unexplained  mystery  how,  suddenly,  so  many 
great  heroes  appeared,  such  as  the  trained  military  nations  of 
Europe  did  not  furnish  and  could  not  furnish.  And  so  it  was, 
especially,  with  Lincoln. 

I  read  on  the  last  page  of  this  little  paper  Lincoln's  defini 
tion  of  a  democracy — a  modern  popular  government,  a  govern 
ment  "of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people;"  and 
he  hopes  that  that  government  "shall  not  perish  from  the 
earth."  He  who  spoke  these  words  deserves,  beyond  all  other 
titles,  that  of  the  great  philosopher.  In  no  better  words,  in 
no  more  terse  language,  could  popular  government  be  de 
fined,  could  our  American  government  be  defined — "a  govern 
ment  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people."  Not 
for  any  one  class  or  for  any  one  family,  but  for  the  whole 
people,  and  by  the  whole  people. 

I  was  asked,  while  in  Paris,  to  speak  of  America  and  to 
say  some  things  that  would  have  relation  to  the  present  con 
dition  of  Europe,  particularly  to  say  what  we  understood  by 
popular  governments,  by  democracies;  and  I  told  them  that 
I  could  not  define  a  democracy  or  a  popular  government  in 
better  language  than  in  the  words  of  Abraham  Lincoln, — "a 


14  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people." 
I  do  not  say  that  these  words  of  Lincoln  were  then  heard 
for  the  first  time  in  Paris,  but  this  much  it  is  my  good  fortune 
to  be  able  to  say,  that,  in  some  manner,  I  was  instrumental  in 
emphasizing-  them ;  and,  since  then,  this  definition  of  Lincoln's, 
I  find,  is  going  through  all  the  papers  and  all  the  reviews  of 
all  the  different  countries  of  Europe.  Constantly  the  comment 
is  made :  ''Never  was  a  better  definition  given  of  a  popular 
government;  these  words  we  must  inscribe  in  all  our  great 
proclamations  in  Europe,  for  this  is  the  government  of  the  fu 
ture,  the  government  which  the  whole  world  should  envy." 

We  have  a  fearful  responsibility  resting  upon  us.  We  have 
to  guard  the  country,  the  institutions  for  which  our  fathers, 
our  brothers,  ourselves,  indeed,  fought  and  exposed  our  lives, 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  We  have  to  guard  them  today, 
in  peace,  as  we  guarded  them  then,  in  war.  We  have  to  guard 
them  not  only  for  our  own  nation,  but  for  the  world  at  large. 
Today,  as  never  betore,  trie  eyes  of  nations  are  upon  us.  We 
are  looked  upon  as  a  providential  nation,  a  nation  that  is  giv 
ing  to  the  world  the  form  of  the  most  advanced  government — 
the  government  "of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the 
people."  And  the  question  is  asked,  in  trembling,  by  the  friends 
of  humanity,  "Is  such  a  government  a  mere  ideal,  or  can  it  be 
a  matter  of  practical  reality?"  So  far,  we  say,  "Look  to  the 
United  States ;  here  is  the  great  popular  government."  And 
the  question  then  is  asked,  by  friends,  hoping  that  all  will  be 
well,  and  by  foes,  hoping  that  it  may  be  a  failure,  "Ah,  but  will 
it  last?  Ah,  but  will  it  be  able  to  conquer  all  the  obstacles,  to 
do  away  with  all  the  dangers?"  Let  us,  as  Americans,  answer, 
in  tones  that  shall  be  heard  across  seas  and  oceans,  "Yea,  we 
pledge  ourselves  that  our  free  institutions  shall  last." 

But  we  need  to  do  something  more  than  to  speak — we  need 
to  lead  lives  like  the  hero  whom  we  honor  tonight.  We,  who 
understand  well  the  value  of  our  country,  need  to  give  to  the 
whole  population,  high  and  low,  the  example  of  deep  patriot 
ism,  of  disinterested  patriotism,  of  pure-minded  patriotism. 
We  owe  it  to  all,  to  go  abroad  in  our  daily  duties,  in  the  ex 
ercise  of  our  rights,  to  show  to  all  our  fellow  citizens,  that 
only  love  of  country  must  control  us  in  all  our  civil  and  in  all 
our  political  movements.  When  we  come  before  the  public 
as  American  citizens,  let  no  temptations  control  us,  let  never 
a  vote  be  cast,  let  never  a  word  be  spoken  in  the  name  of 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  15 

country,  unless  inspired  by  the  purest  and  holiest  patriotism 
and  the  purest  and  holiest  love  of  country.  Let  the  intelligent 
citizen  give  in  every  way  this  example,  and  proclaim  aloud, 
morning,  noon  and  night,  the  principles  of  patriotism,  so  that 
others  will  imitate  us,  and  this  great  nation,  with  all  its  magni 
ficent  institutions,  will  go  down  to  posterity  a  blessing  to  the 
people  of  America  and  a  blessing  to  the  people  of  all  nations 
on  earth. 


16  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


LINCOLN— THE  GREAT  COMMONER. 

BY    CHARLES    H.    FOWLER,    METHODIST    EPISCOPAL    BISHOP. 
(Read  February  14,  1893.) 


Herodotus  once  went  to  the  games  in  Greece.  He  was 
seen  and  recognized.  Soon  the  people  caught  him  up  in  their 
arms  and  carried  him  about  the  great  arena  and  said,  "This 
is  the  man  that  has  written  our  history;  let  us  honor  him  who 
honors  us."  Not  the  man  who  has  written  our  history  would 
we  honor  tonight,  but  the  man  who  has  made  much  of  it. 
Indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  tell  how  much  such  a  name  as  Abraham 
Lincoln  is  worth  to  a  people.  We  cannot  exactly  put  it  up 
on  'change  or  in  the  bank  as  security,  and  yet  the  land  is 
hardly  rich  enough  to  do  without  it.  Carthage  had  seven  hun 
dred  thousand  citizens,  and  she  had  a  wide  commerce;  she 
worked  the  tin  mines  of  Britain  and  the  silver  mines  of  Spain, 
and  sent  her  vessels  to  the  Baltic  and  her  caravans  to  the 
Niger;  and  yet  she  has  sent  to  us  but  one  name  to  illumine  her 
history — Hannibal.  Take  out  of  American  history  the  name  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  and  we  would  be,  for  this  last  half  cen 
tury,  comparatively  poor ;  a  few  other  names  with  his,  and  the 
rest  will  shake  through  the  sieve  of  the  next  twenty  cen 
turies.  But  his  will  abide,  and  we  cannot  measure  its  value 
in  dollars  and  cents. 

He  was  a  man  of  the  people  and  represents  and  embodies 
the  ideal  republic  as  no  other  man  ever  has  in  our  history. 
Born  in  poverty,  as  we  have  heard,  and  in  the  poorest  poverty, 
living  in  a  hut  that  had  three  sides  and  no  door  or  window — 
for  it  did  not  need  them,  the  other  side  being  wide  as  the 
universe;  without  furniture,  without  floor — built  by  a  father 
who  did  not  even  root  into  the  soil,  but  drifted  without  motive 
for  moving.  Yet  it  was  a  clean  poverty.  It  was  not  the  poverty 
of  the  crowded  cities,  for  it  stood  erect  on  the  tender  bosom 
of  gentle  nature;  not  the  poverty  that  stands  with  its  hat  un 
der  its  arm,  but  a  poverty  that  recognizes  in  itself  a  right  to 
live  anywhere. 

He  found  comfort  in  his  stepmother — one  who  loved  him 
tenderly  and  spoke  of  him  to  the  end  as  "the  best  boy  that 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  17 

ever  lived;"  and  he  loved  her  with  that  rapturous  affection  of 
his  almost  boundless  nature.  I  remember  in  boyhood  to  have 
seen  a  picture  of  Washington  taking  his  farewell  of  his  mother, 
before  going  to  take  command  of  the  armies,  and  it  touched 
and  moved  me  always.  But  I  have  seen  another  picture  in 
my  thought,  of  a  greater  than  Washington,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
turning  aside  after  his  election  to  go  and  take  his  farewell  of 
his  stepmother;  and,  as  she  clung  about  his  neck,  touched  with 
the  spirit  of  prophecy  and  weeping  for  the  loss  that  was  com 
ing  to  her,  saying,  "They  will  kill  you ;  you  will  die  for  our 
country;  f  shall  never  see  you  again,"  I  see  a  fit  picture  to 
be  the  companion  of  that  older  one.  The  older  came  out  of 
the  border  of  the  monarchical  government  and  out  of  what 
we  are  pleased  to  call  the  upper  classes  of  society;  the  later 
came  out  of  what  we  call  the  lower  classes;  but  God  some 
times  calls  our  up  His  down;  and  it  may  be  that  in  this  poverty 
we  see  the  embodiment  of  the  common  people  that  stand  on 
the  earth  and  make  up  the  body  of  this  great  people,  and 
replenish,  again  and  again,  the  ranks  that  we  are  pleased  to 
call  society. 

It  is  difficult  to  analyze  the  character  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  on 
account  of  its  symmetry.  It  is  like  taking  hold  of  a  globe; 
it  is  largest  on  whichever  side  we  approach  it — difficult  to 
measure,  a  little  beyond  our  comprehension,  for  a  man  is  com 
prehended  only  by  his  peers.  But  it  had  a  magnificent  founda 
tion.  Its  underlying  principle  was  its  moral  element.  It  mani 
fested  itself  in  absolute  integrity.  His  word  was  final  with 
every  man  who  knew  him.  The  principal  characteristic  of 
his  mind  was  reason.  He  reached  his  conclusions  not  by  im 
pulse  or  instinct,  but  by  argument.  This  made  him  slow  in 
great  questions,  and  yet  it  made  him  so  firm  that  he  was  equal 
to  every  emergency  and  was  the  wonder  of  mankind.  His 
conscience,  crowned  by  the  symmetry  of  his  faculties,  made 
his  hard  common  sense  the  steady  ally  of  the  right.  His  con 
science,  his  reason,  and  his  common  sense  were  the  three  fixed 
points  through  which  the  perfect  circle  of  his  character  was 
drawn.  Without  any  one  of  these,  he  would  have  failed,  and 
we  might  have  been  buried  amid  the  ruins  of  the  republic. 
Without  the  first  he  would  have  been  a  villain;  without  the 
second,  he  would  have  been  a  fool  or  a  bigot;  without  the 
third,  he  would  have  been  a  fanatic  or  a  dreamer;  with  them 
all,  he  was  Abraham  Lincoln. 


18  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

Men  speak  of  his  goodness  as  if  it  were  his  weakness;  but 
they  do  not  measure  the  man,  for  his  goodness  was  exercised 
under  the  great  law  of  duty  that  bound  him  always.  His 
goodness  was  overflowing  and  abundant.  In  childhood,  the 
simplest  cruelty  to  man  or  beast  made  him  boil  over  with 
wrath.  It  was  in  that  first  historic  journey,  on  a  flat-boat  to 
New  Orleans,  in  1831,  that  he  saw  for  the  first  time,  the 
bondman  in  chains  and  on  the  auction  block,  and  from  that 
time  onward  he  was  the  unhesitating  enemy  of  slavery.  In 
1836,  a  member  of  the  Illinois  state  legislature,  when  the  state 
went  wild  with  the  other  states,  joining  in  the  act  of  Con 
gress  that  refused  to  hear  petitions  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  finding  only  one  man  to  agree  with  him,  entered 
upon  the  journal  of  that  state  his  protest  against  the  resolu 
tions  of  the  state.  In  1846,  the  President  of  the  United  States 
issued  a  proclamation  saying  that  the  Mexicans  had  invaded 
the  soil  of  the  republic  and  had  murdered  our  citizens.  Mr. 
Lincoln,  then  a  member  of  Congress,  introduced  the  then 
famous  "Spot  Resolution,"  in  which  he  requested  the  President 
to  name  the  particular  spot  where  this  outrage  had  happened. 
He  had  had  the  courage  always  to  stand  by  his  anti-slavery 
convictions,  which  made  it  possible  for  him  finally  to  remove 
that  domestic  institution  that  sought  to  throttle  and  ruin  the 
country. 

His  goodness  can  hardly  be  measured.  He  seemed  to  touch 
everything  on  the  right  side.  If  I  could  paint  but  two  pictures 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  one  would  be,  of  course,  his  issuing  of  the 
proclamation  of  emancipation  that  has  made  him  the  great 
emancipator;  the  other  would  be  a  typical  scene  in  which  he 
distributes  a  little  of  the  mercy  that  flowed  so  abundantly 
through  his  veins :  A  poor  woman,  tall  and  thinly  clad,  came 
to  him  saying,  "Mr.  President,  I  had  three  sons  and  a  husband 
in  the  army,  but  my  husband  has  just  been  killed;  I  want  my 
oldest  son."  And  he  wrote. the  order  giving  him  a  release 
from  the  service.  She  went  to  the  front  just  in  time  to  see 
the  oldest  boy  die  of  his  wounds  in  the  hospital.  With  the 
statement  from  the  surgeon  on  the  back  of  the  order,  she  re 
turned  to  the  President  and  handed  him  the  paper.  He  said, 
"I  know  what  you  want,  you  need  not  ask  it.  I  will  give  you 
your  next  oldest  son."  And  then,  as  he  wrote  the  order,  he 
said,  "You  have  one  and  I  have  one ;  that  is  about  fair."  But 
the  poor  old  woman  of  the  common  people  stood  by  the  side  of 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  19 

the  President's  chair  and  smoothed  down  his  hair  as  he  wrote, 
and,  her  tears  running  upon  his  head,  she  said,  "God  bless  you, 
Mr.  Lincoln,  may  you  live  a  thousand  years  to  be  the  President 
of  this  great  republic." 

A  little  incident,  that  I  have  not  seen  in  print,  told  me  by 
James  R.  Speed,  Mr.  Lincoln's  life-long  friend,  sets  forth  this 
quality  of  the  great  President  by  which  he  was  in  common 
heart-beat  with  us  all.  Lincoln  said:  "Speed,  why  don't  you 
stop  and  see  me  ?  I  want  to  see  somebody  that  doesn't  want 
anything."  Speed  says,  "You  are  worn  to  death  and  you  must 
rest."  "No,  stop  tonight,  after  the  levee,  and  let  us  have 
a  visit."  So,  on  that  Thursday  night,  when  the  people  had 
gone  away,  they  sat  down  together,  two  or  three  minutes ; 
then  Speed  got  up  and  said,  "Mr.  Lincoln,  I  must  go,  I  haven't 
the  heart  to  keep  you  out  of  your  bed,  you  must  rest."  Put 
ting  out  his  long,  strong  hand,  and  taking  Speed  by  the 
shoulder,  Lincoln  said  to  him  again,  "Mr.  Speed,  stay  with 
me,  for  I  never  sleep  Thursday  nights."  Mr.  Speed  said, 
"What  do  you  mean?  what  do  you  say?"  He  said  "I  never 
sleep  Thursday  nights.  Tomorrow  is  execution  day,  and  all 
around  the  lines  the  boys  will  be  shot,  unless  I  sign  their 
pardon.  But  I  find,  and  the  generals  tell  me,  that  to  pardon 
these  costs  more  lives,  and  so  I  cannot  pardon;  but  I  can't 
sleep  when  I  think  that  tomorrow  they  will  be  shot." 

Never  was  a  greater  or  a  truer  heart  put  in  charge  of  the 
people  than  Lincoln.  Goodness  and  greatness,  in  him,  went 
together.  Firm  as  he  was  good.  Why  I  remember  hearing 
pious  men  pray  that  God  would  give  him  backbone — when  he 
had  the  almightiest  spinal  column  that  ever  stood  erect  on 
this  American  continent !  You  remember  that,  at  one  time, 
many  of  the  personal  enemies  of  Gen.  Grant,  and  a  great  many 
of  the  people,  wanted  his  head,  but  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  "No,  I 
rather  like  the  man,  and  I  think  we'll  keep  him,  nevertheless." 
We  learned,  a  while  afterward,  that  to  have  taken  that  head 
would  have  cost  us  more  than  the  republic  could  pay.  Back 
bone?  WThy,  he  sent  three  questions  to  the  Committee  on 
the  War  concerning  the  arming  of  the  negroes,  to  be  asked 
of  the  officers  that  might  come  before  them ;  and,  of  ninety- 
two  officers  that  were  catechised,  eighty-seven  were  solid  against 
the  arming,  and  two  major-generals  and  three  brigadiers  were  in 
favor  of  it.  When  the  committee  handed  in  their  report  to  Lincoln,  he 
looked  it  over,  turned  around  and  issued  the  order  for  the  arming. 


20  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

We  have  learned  of  his  courage  and  his  backbone  and  his  strength 
of  character. 

He  was  indeed  of  us,  the  Great  Commoner;  grew  up  among 
us,  wras  so  trained  and  educated  that  he  belonged  to  us;  his 
plans,  his  sympathies,  his  feelings,  his  dreams,  his  ambitions, 
wrere  ours.  If  he  had  come  of  very  aristocratic  family,  he 
would  not  have  been  our  President.  The  schools  might  have 
polished  him,  but  they  would  have  removed  him  from  us. 
But,  trained  in  the  wilderness,  dwelling  in  a  cabin,  struggling 
on  the  frontier,  he  grew  into  our  manhood,  and  his  calloused 
palms  never  slipped  from  the  poor  man's  hand.  He  was  as 
accessible  in  the  White  House  as  he  had  been  in  the  cabin; 
and  the  wants  of  the  poor  colored  man  were  as  much  to  him 
as  the  claims  of  the  opulent  white  man.  He  was  indeed  our 
brother  and  the  representative  of  our  institutions. 

With  a  living  faith  in  God,  that  characterizes  this  great 
people,  he  lifted  them  on  his  faith.  Look  at  him  on  the  steps 
of  the  car  just  leaving  Springfield  going  to  Washington,  stop 
ping  and  saying  to  the  friends  of  his  youth  and  of  all  his 
years,  "I  go  to  a  greater  task  than  that  assigned  to  Wash 
ington,  and  unless  the  God  that  helped  him  helps  me,  I  shall 
fail.  But  if  that  Omniscient  Mind  and  Almighty  Arm  that 
sustained  and  guided  him  shall  sustain  and  guide  me,  I  shall 
not  fail,  I  shall  succeed."  And  the  country  believed  him. 
When  he  issued  his  proclamation  of  emancipation,  he  said  to 
Secretary  Seward,  when  Seward  was  arguing  against  his  sign 
ing,  "But,  Secretary  Seward,  I  must,  I  told  the  Lord  I  would." 
Sewrard  said,  in  a  quick  and  somewhat  startled  way,  "What 
is  that  you  say,  Mr.  President?"  He  said,  "I  say  that  I  told 
the  Lord  if  he  would  drive  the  rebels  out  of  Pennsylvania, 
I  would  emancipate  the  slaves,  and  I'll  do  it." 

Magnificent  character!  Measured  |by  what  he  did,  he 
stands  above  every  other  man  of  six  thousand  years.  He  came 
to  the  government  by  a  minority  vote,  without  an  army,  with 
out  a  navy,  without  munitions ;  into  the  capital  full  of  enemies, 
surrounded  by  rebels,  friends  far  away  in  the  North;  he  com 
pacted  his  friends,  conciliated  his  rivals,  overmastered  the 
Copperheads,  put  his  hand  on  Wall  street,  and  conquered  the 
rebels.  He  stamped  on  the  earth,  and  two  millions  of  armed 
men  sprang  up  for  his  defense;  he  spoke  to  the  sea,  and  the 
mightiest  navy  the  world  ever  saw  crowned  its  waves;  he 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  21 

breathed  into  the  air,  and  money  and  munitions  rained  upon 
the  people.     Measured  by  what  he  did,  he  is  without  a  peer. 

I  would  not  take  one  laurel  from  the  statues  of  the  noble 
dead;  I  would  rather  place  in  their  midst  another  statue  that 
will  adorn  their  glorified  company.  We  are  indeed  too  near 
Mr.  Lincoln  to  award  him  the  glory  he  deserves.  We  remem 
ber  too  well  his  long,  lank  form,  his  awkward  movements,  to 
realize  that  this  man,  standing  among  us  like  a  father,  towers 
above  us  like  a  monarch.  I  turn  to  the  past:  I  see  behind 
me  a  noble  company.  There  is  Napoleon,  the  man  of  destiny. 
Armies  move  at  his  bidding  as  if  .they  were  the  muscles  of 
his  body.  Kings  rise  and  fall  at  his  nod;  not  a  soldier  on  the 
earth  lifts  his  foot  without  his  permission.  But  he  lived  for 
himself.  His  entire  life  was  a  failure.  He  did  not  accomplish 
one  of  his  great  purposes.  I  see  Wellington,  great  as  a  military 
chieftain,  competent  to  command  armies  against  a  foreign  and 
hereditary  foe.  I  see  Marlborough ;  but  on  every  stone  of  his 
monument,  and  in  every  page  of  his  history,  I  see  the  frauds 
by  which  he  enriched  himself  from  the  plunder  of  his  gasp 
ing  country.  There  is  Cromwell,  England's  noblest  son ;  but 
his  arena  was  small,  his  work  limited,  the  result  ephemeral. 
The  revolution  from  the  hereditary  kingdom  of  the  Stuarts 
to  the  hereditary  dictatorship  of  the  Cromwells  was  not  so 
great  as  the  change  from  executing  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law 
in  Boston  to  the  constitutional  emancipation  of  slaves  in  Mary 
land.  Yet,  upon  his  death,  the  government  reverted  to  the 
Stuarts.  But  upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  Freedom  rears 
a  monument,  and  for  the  new  conquests  marches  boldly  into 
the  future.  I  do  see  a  Caesar  yonder,  but  his  power  is  the 
purchase  of  crime  and  falls  about  his  grave  like  withered 
weeds.  And  away  down  yonder  in  the  dark  vortex  of  history, 
looking  out  upon  the  centuries,  is  old  Pericles.  But  the  thirty 
thousand  citizens  of  Athens  are  lost  in  some  inland  town  of 
America  wTith  her  thirty  millions  of  citizens.  There  are  many 
noble  heroes  who  illumine  the  darkness  behind  us  with  some 
single  virtue,  but  among  them  all  I  see  no  Lincoln.  He  is 
radiant  with  all  the  great  virtues,  and  his  memory  shall  shed 
a  glory  upon  -this  age  that  shall  fill  the  eyes  of  men  as  they 
look  into  history.  Other  men  have  excelled  him  in  some  one 
point;  but  taken  at  all  points,  all  and  in  all,  he  stands  head  and 
shoulders  above  every  other  man  of  six  thousand  years.  An 
administrator,  he  saved  the  nation  in  the  perils  of  an  unparal- 


22  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

leled  civil  war.  A  statesman,  he  justifies  his  measures  by 
their  success.  A  philanthropist,  he  gave  liberty  to  one  race 
and  salvation  to  another.  A  moralist,  he  stooped  from  the 
summit  of  human  power  to  the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  became 
a  Christian.  A  mediator,  he  exercised  mercy  under  the  most 
absolute  obedience  to  law.  A  leader,  he  was  no  partisan.  A 
commander,  he  was  untainted  with  blood.  A  ruler  in  desperate 
times,  he  was  unsullied  with  crime.  A  man,  he  has  left  no 
word  of  passion,  no  thought  of  malice,  no  trick  of  craft,  no 
act  of  jealousy,  no  purpose  of  selfish  ambition.  Thus  per 
fected,  without  a  model  and  without  a  peer,  he  was  dropped 
into  these  troubled  years  to  adorn  and  embellish  all  that  is 
good  and  all  that  is  great  in  our  humanity,  and  to  present 
to  all  coming  time  the  incarnation  of  the  divine  idea  of  free 
government.  Let  us  cherish  his  memory,  emulate  his  virtues, 
and  stretch  ourselves  up  toward  his  greatness  and  hope  that, 
by  and  by,  in  the  city  yonder,  we  may  see  his  stalwart  soul. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  23 


LINCOLN,  THE  STATESMAN  AND  PATRIOT. 

BY  CYRUS  NORTHROP,   PRESIDENT   OF   THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  MINNESOTA. 

(Read  February  14,  1893.) 


I  have  no  prepared  address  to  make,  and  therefore  I  can 
fit  in  perhaps  better  than  if  I  had  one,  after  what  has  been 
said,  for  the  English  language  has  been  put  to  its  utmost  power, 
during  the  last  few  days,  to  give  expression  to  the  American 
sentiment  and  appreciation  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  highest 
praise  that  in  this  age  has  been  bestowed  upon  any  man  has 
been  rendered  him  in  the  presence  of  a  people  who  neither 
felt  nor  expressed  dissent. 

Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  one  man  in  this  nineteenth  cen 
tury  who  is  certain  to  live  in  all  the  coming  ages.  Ulysses 
S.  Grant  will  be  remembered  as  the  great  commander  who 
led  the  forces  of  the  Union  through  that  great  contest  to  ulti 
mate  victory,  but  he  will  be  remembered  more  on  account 
of  the  great  events  with  which  he  was  associated,  and  the  great 
combinations  in  which  he  was  the  moving  spirit,  than  by  reason 
of  any  personal  qualities  of  his  own  out  of  which  were  pro 
duced  the  elements  of  victory.  Abraham  Lincoln,  despite  the 
great  things  that  he  did,  will  be  remembered  hardly  less  for 
what  he  was  than  for  what  he  did.  He  is  a  perfectly  unique 
figure  in  the  midst  of  this  century  and  of  all  the  centuries — 
nothing  like  him  since  the  creation  of  the  world.  As  Ingersoll 
said  the  other  night,  "He  had  no  ancestors,  no  fellows,  and 
no  successors."  And  it  is  literally  true.  Born  in  a  log  cabin, 
in  poverty,  he  did  not  derive,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  any  inheri 
tance  of  wealth,  of  blood,  or  even  of  brains,  from  his  an 
cestors.  His  mother,  it  is  true,  seems  to  have  been  superior 
to  any  other  of  his  ancestors.  Lincoln  himself  said,  when 
President,  and  in  the  zenith  of  his  power,  "All  that  I  am  and 
all  that  I  hope  to  be,  I  owe  to  my  sainted  mother."  But  what 
his  "sainted  mother"  was  thinking  of  when  she  married  the  in 
efficient  and  shiftless  father,  I  have  never  been  able  to  deter 
mine.  How  much  of  brain  power  Lincoln  derived  from  his 
mother,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  She  taught  him  to  read  and 
write.  She  did  more  for  him  than  the  twelve  months  of  school- 


24  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

ing — which  was  all  that  he  had  during  his  life.  She  died  when 
he  was  only  nine  years  old.  Think  of  it !  A  boy  nine  years 
of  age,  left  without  any  comforting,  guiding,  inspiring  influence 
in  the  world.  What  an  intellectual  and  moral  nature  his  must 
have  been  that,  amid  the  great  events  in  which  he  was  after 
wards  called  to  act,  he  was  able  to  rise  to  the  majesty  of  the 
highest  manhood  and  of  the  noblest  statesmanship  that  this 
broad  country  has  ever  seen ! 

You  ask  me  to  speak  of  him  as  a  statesman.  Poor  boy; 
hired  hand  on  a  flat-boat ;  surveyor ;  clerk  in  a  country  store ; 
lawyer;  in  the  legislature  in  1837  for  the  first  time — just  as 
in  the  Empire  State  another  figure,  educated  in  college,  cul 
tured,  polished,  brilliant,  was  made  its  governor.  Humble, 
honest  Abraham  Lincoln,  sitting  in  the  house  of  representa 
tives  in  Illinois — Illinois  black  with  Egyptian  darkness,  Illinois 
practically  a  southern  state,  Illinois  whose  legislature  in  1837 
is  endorsing  human  bondage  and  negro  slavery — humble 
Abraham  Lincoln  sitting  there,  without  a  record,  without  any 
thing  back  of  him,  and  God  only  knows  what  before  him. 
And  in  Albany,  the  capital  of  the  Empire  State,  in  the  govern 
or's  chair  sits  William  H.  Seward,  the  polished  leader,  the 
orator,  the  disciple  of  Thurlow  Weed,  the  man  skilled  in  man 
agement,  in  politics,  in  administration,  in  government;  the 
man  who,  as  governor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  did  more 
in  the  line  of  statesmanship,  solved  more  questions,  led  to 
more  reforms  than  Abraham  Lincoln  accomplished  in  his  whole 
life.  There  are  the  two  men.  And,  in  1858,  William  H.  Sew 
ard  is  talking,  at  Rochester,  of  an  "irrepressible  conflict,"  and 
Abraham  Lincoln,  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  is  talking  about  "the 
house  divided  against  itself  that  cannot  stand."  Here  are  the 
two  men;  the  eastern  type  of  the  polished  civilization,  and  the 
western  man  born  of  the  people,  self-made,  without  polish, 
and  with  nothing  but  his  own  unaided  efforts  and  culture. 
And  in  the  year  1858,  this  tall,  lank,  sad-looking  man,  is  brought 
forward  as  a  candidate  for  United  States  senator,  before  the 
people  of  Illinois,  and  enters  into  that  contest  with  the  young 
giant,  Stephen  A.  Douglas — Douglas,  a  figure  to  inspire,  vigor 
ous,  ambitious,  successful,  the  leader  of  the  great  party,  a  man 
who  had  never  known  defeat;  and  Lincoln,  the  uncouth,  raw, 
tall,  lank,  sad-faced  young  man  who  had  never  known  success; 
the  one  representing  the  fleeting  and  passing  changes  of  polit 
ical  policy,  and  the  other  representing  the  eternal  truths  of 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  25 

God.  They  fought  it  out  upon  that  issue,  and  the  policy  of 
the  present  triumphed  and  Douglas  was  senator.  1858  passes 
by,  1859,  and  then  comes  1860.  The  tall,  plain,  common- 
sense,  clear-headed  orator  of  Illinois  goes  east.  He  goes  into 
Cooper  Institute  and  he  makes  that  speech,  the  most  logical, 
the  most  argumentative,  the  most  convincing  speech  that  was 
ever  made  on  American  soil — a  speech  which  demonstrated  the 
policy  of  the  fathers  of  the  republic,  of  the  men  who  framed 
the  constitution,  as  to  their  opinion  of  slavery;  and  he  closed 
that  speech  with  a  sentence  which  is  the  key  to  his  character, 
the  key  to  his  success,  the  key  to  his  glory,  "Let  us  have  faith 
that  right  makes  might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end  do 
our  duty  as  we  understand  it."  That  speech,  gentlemen,  made 
Abraham  Lincoln  President  of  the  United  States. 

Now,  why  was  it,  when  the  Republican  convention  met  and 
the  contest  was  between  Abraham  Lincoln  and  William  H. 
Seward — between  the  plain  man  of  the  west  and  the  cultured 
man  of  the  east;  between  the  man  who  had  shown  no  practical 
statesmanship  and  the  man  who  had  shown  all  the  arts  of 
statesmanship  that  the  Machiavelli  of  eastern  politics  could  im 
part  to  him — that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  chosen  as  the  candi 
date  ©f  the  party  for  President,  and  not  William  H.  Seward? 
Why  was  it  that  the  house-divided-against-itself  speech  was 
deemed  less  dangerous  than  the  irrespressible-conflict  speech 
of  Mr.  Seward?  Have  you  ever  thought  of  the  reason?  It 
is  not  far  to  seek.  There  was  the  difference  in  the  two  men 
of  just  this  nature :  Mr.  Seward,  though  he  was  a  leader,  an 
advanced  leader,  in  the  great  army  of  freedom,  though  he  had 
resisted  the  encroachments  of  slavery,  though  he  had  repre 
sented  the  free-soil  wing  of  the  Whig  party  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  was  always  endeavoring  to  regulate  the  processes 
of  affairs  and  the  operations  of  principles  by  thoughts  of  the 
success  of  the  party.  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  the  other  hand,  begin 
ning  back  twenty  years  before  men  had  advanced  far  enough 
in  his  own  state  to  believe  slavery  to  be  wrong,  had  taken, 
from  the  first,  the  position  that  principle  was  everything, 
and  that  upon  right  principle  must  rest  the  foundation  for 
the  building  up  of  a  party.  The  party,  feeling  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  planted  on  eternal  principles,  the  party,  feeling  that  Mr. 
Seward  might  be  drifted  from  side  to  side  by  the  eddies  and 
whirling  tides  of  policy,  chose ;  and  the  nation  chose,  and  they 
chose  right — they  chose  Abraham  Lincoln.  God  bless  him !  They 


26  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

chose  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  he  was  elected.  He  went  into  the 
presidential  chair,  and  the  great  victory  was  won. 

And  oh,  what  a  man  he  was !  I  went  to  him,  once,  and  sat 
with  him  in  the  White  House.  I  went  down  there  as  the 
messenger  of  Gov.  Buckingham  of  Connecticut,  to  plead  with 
him  for  a  change  of  policy  in  a  certain  particular  affecting  our 
ability  to  carry  on  the  war.  He  received  me,  just  as  I  supposed 
he  received  every  one  else,  with  a  courtesy  that  could  not  be 
surpassed.  He  threw  his  leg  over  the  arm  of  his  chair  and 
he  sat  there  and  talked  with  me  as  familiarly  as  if  I  had  been 
Gov.  Buckingham  himself  instead  of  his  messenger.  And  I 
saw  then,  and  I  have  never  forgotten,  wrhy  it  was  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  that  long  struggle  in  the  years  that  followed,  kept 
the  great  body  of  the  Northern  people  so  in  touch  with  him 
self,  when  statesmen  of  no  mean  reputation  and  generals  of 
great  popular  favor,  and  editors  of  papers  that  had  voiced  the 
sentiment  of  his  party,  deserted  him.  It  \vas  because  he  never 
forgot  that  he  came  of  the  people,  that  he  was  of  them,  that 
by  them  he  had  been  raised  to  power,  and  that  for  them  the 
services  of  his  life  were  to  be  rendered.  The  great  heart  of 
the  man,  the  tender  heart  of  the  man,  was  exhibited  in  all  his 
career. 

What  an  orator  he  w7as!  What  an  orator!  Not  an  Everett, 
studied  and  polished  like  an  actor;  nor  a  Webster,  with  his 
mighty  and  majestic  rhetoric  and  his  soaring  imagination;  not 
a  Phillips,  with  his  gracefully  repressed  intensity  and  his  boil 
ing  passion  delivered  in  ice-bound  sentences ;  but  Lincoln, 
Lincoln,  the  orator  of  conscientious  thought,  touched  and  glori 
fied  by  a  universal  charity. 

Oh,  the  man,  the  greatness  of  the  man !  How  he  grew  as 
the  years  went  on!  As  was  said  of  one  even  greater  than  he, 
he  "increased  in  wisdom  and  stature  and  in  favor  with  God 
and  man."  When  he  went  up  to  Gettysburg,  there  in  the  midst 
of  the  war,  with  his  great  burden  resting  upon  him  and  his 
heart  dropping  drops  of  blood,  of  sympathy  for  his  suffering 
country,  what  a  speech  \vas  that  he  made — ten  sentences  that 
will  live  longer  than  any  eloquence  that  has  been  spoken  on 
earth  in  nineteen  centuries.  And  where  did  he  get  that  style 
so  plain,  so  clear,  so  simple?  You  may  read  Demosthenes 
with  his  mighty  argument;  you  may  read  Cicero  with  his 
sweeping  denunciation,  in  clear,  polished  sentences ;  you  may 
read  Erskine,  with  his  admirable  statement  and  great  common 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  27 

sense  and  practical  application  of  law;  you  may  read  Brough 
am,  with  his  thundering  periods  of  denunciation — read  whom 
you  will,  but  Lincoln  never  got  his  style  from  the  great  orators 
of  the  world,  he  got  it  from  the  English  version  of  the  Bible, 
studied  it  from  reading  those  simple  words  that  the  loving 
John  has  recorded  in  regard  to  Jesus  Christ.  And  the  spirit 
of  all  that  he  spoke,  during  those  last  years  of  the  war — where 
did  it  come  from  ?  Ah,  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  broadest  human 
ity,  best  exemplified  in  the  Son  of  Man.  O,  great-hearted  man! 
noble-hearted  man !  homely-faced,  sad-faced,  pathetic-faced 
man !  The  nation  wept  when  he  died,  and  there  was  no  friend 
of  liberty  and  no  patriot  loving  his  country  who  did  not  feel 
that  the  world  was  more  lonesome  when  Abraham  Lincoln 
wrent  away. 


28  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


LINCOLN,  THE  MAN. 

BY  MAHLON  N.  GILBERT,   PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  BISHOP,   ST.  PAUL. 
(Read  February  14,  1893.) 


The  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  like  a  gold  mine 
which  is  inexhaustible,  from  which  you  may  draw  forth  treas 
ures  and  still  the  vein  opens  up  more  widely,  and  richer  treas 
ures  are  still  in  store. 

I  would  present  to  you  tonight  only  one  characteristic, 
which,  perhaps,  has  been  suggested,  but  not  dwelt  upon.  It 
is  the  characteristic  which,  it  seems  to  me,  found  voice  in 
every  soldier  who  marched  to  the  beat  of  the  drum  during  those 
years  of  war ;  it  is  the  characteristic  which  crowned  the  won 
derful  abilities  of  this  great  commoner,  this  great  patriot,  this 
great  statesman;  it  is  the  characteristic  which  found  its  em- 

o 

bodiment  and  its  expression  in  that  tenderest  word  which  the 
American  soldier  and  the  American  citizen  could  utter,  "Father 
Abraham."  In  that  simple  word — Father — there  is  embraced 
everything  else ;  there  is  power,  there  is  authority,  there  is 
leadership,  there  is  statesmanship,  there  is  the  great  pulse 
of  the  common  people  beating  in  all  its  wonderful  develop 
ment,  there  is  all  that  makes  up  the  statesman  and  the  man. 
The  father — the  father  not  only  of  the  nation,  but  the  father 
of  a  family — w^hich  is  the  ideal,  after  all,  of  all  these  states 
of  this  land  which  we  love. 

I  have  always  thought  that  the  people  embodied  and  em 
phasized  the  old  Latin  maxim,  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei,  when  they 
gave  him  that  appellation  which,  although  in  its  form  almost 
harsh,  as  it  comes  down  upon  refined  ears,  nevertheless  ex 
pressed  the  true  idea,  "Honest  old  Abe."  In  it  was  the  utter 
ance  of  the  love  which  the  people  bore  for  him,  a  love  which 
consecrated  itself  in  ardent  acts  of  devotion  and  sacrifice;  a 
love  which  found  vent  on  many  a  battlefield,  a  love  which  led 
men  gladly  from  the  homes  which  they  loved  and  from  the 
prattling  children  at  their  side,  to  go  forth  and  face  death  in 
all  its  horrid  forms;  a  love  which,  after  all,  might  always  be 
translated  into  a  phase  of  the  love  that  we  ought  to  bear  for 
God,  the  Father  of  us  all.  It  is  the  fatherhood  of  Abraham 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  29 

Lincoln  that  we  ought  not  to  forget — a  fatherhood  which  seems 
to  embrace  in  it  all  that  was  expressed  in  "The  father  of  his 
Country";  a  fatherhood  which  was  willing  to  lay  itself  out  in 
utter  self-sacrifice;  a  fatherhood  which  lived  in  the  midst  of 
those  years  of  war;  a  fatherhood  which  went  on  beating  out 
its  own  earnest  energies  in  every  thought  gathered  and  ex 
pressed;  a  fatherhood  which  at  last  found  its  culmination  in 
the  final  act  of  love  by  sacrificing  himself  for  the  children 
whom  he  loved.  That,  my  friends,  is  the  fatherhood  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln. 

And  we  are  his  children.  Let  us,  in  the  same  spirit  in  which 
he  spoke  on  the  heights  of  Gettysburg,  where  rebellion  found 
its  highest  limit  and  where  it  found  its  death  also;  in  the  spirit 
of  that  love  which  comes  from  that  fatherhood,  reconsecrate 
ourselves  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  for  which  Father  Abraham 
died.  Let  us  simply  go  on  in  the  wray  that  he  marked  out, 
and  then,  though  the  coming  years  may  never  reach  the 
climax  which  shall  involve  such  a  character  as  that  of  Lincoln, 
nevertheless  there  shall  be  men  coming  up,  in  every  emer 
gency,  who  shall  reflect,  in  their  own  persons  and  in  their  own 
deeds,  something  of  the  wondrous  character  of  the  man  whom 
we  revere. 

Then  out  into  the  future  let  us  press,  with  something  of 
that  same  great  faith  which  was  his,  with  something  of  that 
great  hopefulness,  of  that  great,  wondrous  optimism  which  was 
a  distinguishing  mark  of  his  character,  out  into  that  future  of 
ever-developing  glory,  out  into  that  future  which  we  believe 
shall  be  realized  in  this  country,  and  which  shall  be  emulated 
by  the  nations  of  the  earth ;  until  not  only  America  shall 
revere  Lincoln  as  the  father,  but  the  people  of  the  world,  the 
men  whom  he  has  freed,  the  men  to  whom  he  has  given  the 
true  insight  into  liberty,  black  and  white,  bond  and  free,  shall 
follow  along  and  realize  that  he  indeed  was  the  father  of  a 
principle  which,  in  God's  own  good  time,  shall  prevail  through 
out  the  whole  wide  world. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 


BY    EDWARD    P.    INGERSOLL,    D.    D.,    PASTOR    PARK    CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCH,    ST.    PAUL. 
(Read  February  12,  1894.) 


It  is  not  a  day  we  celebrate  but  a  life,  and  a  life  so  grand, 
so  magnified  with  the  passing  years  that  we  already  see  it 
belongs  to  immortal  fame.  As  the  centuries  have  advanced 
since  the  dark  ages,  we  have  been  lifted  upon  the  shoulders  of 
thirty  generations,  and  the  horizon  of  our  intelligence  has 
widened  and  brightened.  But  higher  than  by  intelligence  have 
W7e  been  lifted  by  those  moral  forces  which  hide  self  and  give 
honor  not  to  prowess,  but  to  the  pure  benefactors  of  man 
kind.  Such  a  benefactor  is  ours !  Grand  and  Imperishable ! 
Honored  and  loved  name,  Abraham  Lincoln!  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  a  star  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  constellation  of  his 
toric  worthies ! 

It  has  come  to  me  that  I  can  best  signalize  this  occasion 
by  naming  and  illustrating  three  or  four  characteristics  of  our 
great  war  president.  The  first  I  name  is  simplicity  of  char 
acter,  blended  with  sincerity.  A  man  may  be  simple  because 
he  has  no  brains,  a  man  may  be  proud  because  he  is  without 
brains,  and  a  man  may  be  proud  because  he  has  brains ;  but, 
a  man  of  brains  and  of  power,  with  modesty  and  simplicity, 
bears  the  signet  of  noblest  manhood. 

It  is  not  often  that  such  virtues  and  graces  are  developed 
amid  the  tumult  and  carnage  of  war.  Noble  exceptions  we 
have  had.  David  lost  nothing  of  character  while  he  was  chas 
ing  the  Philistines  over  the  Judean  hills ;  Marcus  Aurelius  lost 
nothing  of  character  while  he  was  fighting  the  barbarian  on 
the  frozen  Danube ;  Gustavus  Adolphus  lost  nothing  of  char 
acter  when,  with  that  inspiration  that  seemed  to  come  from 
beyond  the  stars,  he  hastened  to  the  very  center  of  Europe  tnat 
he  might  strike  a  blow  for  the  balance  of  imperial  power; 
though  carnage  turned  his  foe,  Gen.  Tilly  of  Austria,  into  a 
fiend.  Napoleon  became  sullen  and  selfish  under  the  power  of 
war;  Marlborough,  greedy  and  grasping;  and,  in  our  first  and 
second  and  third  wars,  there  were  many  men  of  haughty  and 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  31 

imperious  character.  But  there  was  never  so  little  of  these 
malign  characteristics  as  during  the  war  for  our  Union.  Why? 
Because  it  was  signally  for  homes  and  Christian  civilization. 
It  made  heroes  and  not  popinjays. 

The  foremost  men  who  fought,  trusted  by  the  soldiers  and 
by  the  people,  for  the  most  part  lost  the  personal  in  the  public 
weal,  and  the  stars  of  our  flag,  "Old  Glory,"  not  the  stars  on 
their  shoulders,  were  the  symbol  of  inspiration.  Looking  back 
through  the  vista  of  years,  after  the  lapse  of  a  generation,  to 
those  "days  that  tried  men's  souls,"  who  is  there  that  is  not 
willing,  nay,  is  not  eager  to  accord  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  be 
cause  of  the  sincerity  which  lifted  itself  into  nobility,  because 
of  the  simplicity  which  was  abiding  through  all  the  time  of  his 
lofty  position,  a  pedestal  which  shall  stand  side  by  side  with 
that  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  no  higher,  no  lower? 

God  does  not  raise  a  tempest  to  waft  a  feather ;  he  does  not 
lash  the  ocean  to  drown  a  fly.  When  he  is  to  make  a  man 
strong  to  lead  the  people,  he  prepares  him  by  great  trials. 
The  oak  is  knit  by  the  blast,  "the  dross  consumed  and  the  gold 
refined"  by  the  furnace.  Such  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  grand 
representative  of  a  nation's  patriotism  and  integrity. 

He  was  no  cameo,  he  was  no  effigy  cut  upon  a  cherry-stone; 
he  was  no  colossus  cut  out  of  granite,  stretching  his  long  legs 
and  pluming  his  gaunt  form  over  his  armies  and  his  fellow 
citizens ;  but  he  was  a  brother  to  the  stricken  mother,  he  was 
a  father  to  the  boys  in  blue.  All  honor  to  that  nobility  which 
came  out  of  simplicity  and  sincerity  and  modesty.  *  *  *  "Of 
the  people,  and  for  the  people ;"  girded  of  God  for  the  work  and 
"apprehending  that  for  which  also  he  was  apprehended,"  in 
the  might  of  his  faith  and  patriotism  he  took  hold  of  the  very 
foundations  of  the  temple  of  rebellion  and  shook  it  into  ruin. 
God  be  praised  for  the  loyal  strength  of  such  a  man ! 

The  next  characteristic  I  name  is  magnanimity.  It  is  com 
paratively  easy  to  be  magnanimous  when  we  have  had  a  good 
dinner  and  when  the  tide  of  business  prosperity  and  ideal  social 
life  and  firm  health  are  ours.  But  to  be  great-hearted  in  the 
midst  of  such  trials  as  he  met  in  poverty;  in  baffled  ambitions, 
which  were  laudable;  to  be  swreet  and  wholesome  and  gener 
ous  all  the  while  and  everywhere,  was  a  test  of  manhood,  and 
he  nobly  met  it  and  endured  it.  As  illustrating  this  magnan 
imity,  here  is  an  incident,  given  me  by  a  gentlemen  who  was 
a  student  in  Air.  Lincoln's  law  office  in  Springfield  at  the  time 


32  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

of  his  nomination.  This  gentleman  was  an  occasional  and  al 
ways  a  welcome  guest  at  the  White  House.  Just  before  the 
convention  of  1864  he  was  there,  and,  learning  that  Chief  Jus 
tice  Chase,  who  had  been  nominated  to  his  high  office  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  was  likely  to  be  a  candidate  before  the  convention,  he 
said  to  the  president:  "Mr.  Lincoln,  I  think  I  have  a  piece  of 
news  for  you.  There  is  a  new  candidate  for  the  presidency." 
"Ah,  ha!  who  is  it?"  said  the  president.  "Mr.  President,  it 
tries  me  a  great  deal,  and  I  hardly  like  to  tell  you;  I  am  afraid 
that  it  won't  strike  you  well."  "Tell  it  right  out,  sir;  tell  it 
right  out,  sir."  "Well,  sir,  Chief  Justice  Chase  is  to  be  a  can 
didate  for  the  presidency."  "Ah,"  says  Mr.  Lincoln,  without 
any  hesitation,  "Colonel,  that  reminds  me  of  something  that 
happened  down  in  Illinois."  "What  is  that?"  says  the  colonel. 
"Why,  there  was  an  old  man  down  there  who  had  a  nice  little 
patch  of  corn;  he  had  a  boy  thirteen  years  old,  and  he  had  an 
old  horse.  One  day  he  went  out  with  his  old  horse  hitched  to 
the  plow  to  cultivate  the  corn;  and  as  they  were  working  on,  a 
gadfly  got  after  the  horse,  and  the  boy  said,  'Hold  on,  dad,  and 
let  me  get  off  and  kill  that  fly.'  'No,  no,  boy,  let  the  fly  alone, 
it  makes  the  horse  lively!  Ride  on!  ride  on!''  There  was  not 
the  least  shock  to  his  magnanimity;  he  went  on  as  smoothly 
and  cheerfully  and  brightly  as  ever.  It  was  magnanimity  with 
a  "right  smart"  sprinkle  of  acuteness ! 

There  was  a  third  point  in  his  character,  which  has  grown 
upon  me ;  it  is  this :  he  comprehended  the  issue.  There  came 
hurrying  to  him  (and  they  were  patriots)  those  who  said, 
"Now  is  the  time,  sir,  for  the  downfall  of  slavery.  Make  your 
proclamation."  He  answered  them,  "Be  quiet,  wait."  Calmly 
he  stood,  but  watchful.  He  was  misunderstood,  abused,  villi- 
fied,  even  by  those  who  had  helped  to  elect  him;  patriotic  fools 
on  one  side,  and  scheming  vipers  on  the  other  side,  pretending 
to  love  the  Union,  but  seeking  the  aggrandizement  of  self 
rather  than  the  prosperity  and  perpetuity  of  their  country: 
With  all  his  might  he  prosecuted  the  war  for  Union.  "The 
Union  ought  to  be  preserved,  the  Union  may  be  preserved, 
the  Union  shall  be  preserved." 

He  delayed  his  proclamation  because  he  was  grasping  the 
great  thought  that  brotherhood  and  the  love  and  blessings  of 
home  belong  to  all  tribes  and  nations;  that  wholesome  laws 
and  civilized  institutions  are  for  all  mankind;  and  he  desired 
so  to  time  the  issue  of  his  proclamation  that  it  should  reach 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  33 

beyond  the  emancipation  of  the  slave.  He  stood  upon  the  deck 
of  the  old  Ship  of  State  when  she  went  rolling  on  in  the  midst 
•~>f  the  clouds  as  well  as  the  sea  (for  they  touched  each  other), 
and  the  stoutest  sailors  that  had  been  accustomed  to  storms, 
were  abandoning  the  lookout  because  they  could  not  catch 
their  breath  in  the  face  of  the  gales;  but  he  stood,  the  captain, 
firmly,  resolutely  and  trustingly,  steering  between  the  Scylla 
and  Charybdis,  right  on  into  the  very  teeth  of  the  wind,  that 
he  might  accomplish  that  which  was  grandest  in  the  sight 
of  God  and  for  the  blessing  of  humanity.  And  the  flag  with 
its  "ample  folds  floating  over  the  sea  and  over  the  land,"  in 
every  wind  under  the  whole  heavens,  has  become  the  symbol 
of  grander  things  than  it  ever  symbolized  before,  because  he 
saw  humanity  and,  in  seeing  humanity,  he  brought  liberty  to 
the  slave. 

Down  on  the  Rappahannock  there  was  a  day  of  truce- 
some  of  you  may  have  been  there — and  just  as  the  sun  was 
setting  and  the  darkness  was  beginning  to  gather,  on  this  side 
of  the  river,  a  band  belonging  to  some  devision  or  regiment, 
struck  up  "Rally  'Round  the  Flag,  Boys;"  presently  from  the 
other  side  was  wafted  back,  "Way  Down  South  in  Dixie,"  and 
then  all  the  bands  on  this  side  and  on  that  side  of  the  river 
caught  up,  each,  the  challenging  strain;  and  then  on  our  side 
"The  Star  Spangled  Banner;"  and  then  on  their  side  the  "Bon 
ny  Blue  Flag;"  and  then  on  our  side,  "Hail  Columbia,  Happy 
Land;"  and  then  on  their  side,  "My  Maryland" — and  so  for 
ward  and  backward  went  the  challenge.  But,  hark,  the  battle 
of  martial  strains  has  ceased.  Presently  the  dead  silence  is 
broken,  for  our  boys,  in  soft  and  plaintive  notes,  in  tender 
harmony,  have  started  "Home,  Sweet  Home."  Listen!  they 
the  playing  it  over  yonder,  and  all  along  on  either  bank  it  is 
"Home,  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  and  all  hearts  are  melted  into 
one.  As  that  grand  inspiration  of  "Home,  Sweet  Home," 
came  to  the  leader  of  one  of  our  bands,  so  the  inspiration  that 
was  higher  came  to  him  who  was  seeking  the  home  of  human 
ity  in  that  grand  liberty  that  should  touch  and  quicken  and 
lead  all  mankind  into  nobler  life. 

One  characteristic  more.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  reverent. 
Looking  upward  he  sought  God  for  guidance.  Be  it  said  to 
the  honor  of  his  reverent  soul,  he  never  made  a  fling  at  religion. 
It  is  said  of  one  of  our  great  men  by  the  poet, 


34  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

"He  climbed  the  ladder  of  fame  so  high, 
From  its  topmost  round  he  touched  the  sky." 

Abraham  Lincoln  did  not  try  by  fame  to  get  the  favor  of 
heaven;  he  took  the  Gospel  gate  and  "the  path  of  the  just." 
An  incident  illustrates  the  staunchness  and  the  nobility  of  his 
religious  character:  Just  before  the  proclamation  of  emancipa 
tion,  in  discussing  the  situation,  the  President  said  to  his  sec 
retary  of  state :  "Mr.  Seward,  I  promised  God  I'd  do  it." 
"What  is  that,  Mr.  President?  what  did  you  say?"  "Mr.  Se 
ward,  I  have  promised  God  that  I  would  do  it  and  I  shall  do  it." 

There  was  a  day,  when  the  grand  army  came  back  in  tri 
umph  to  Washington,  grim  with  the  stain  and  dust  of  battles, 
and  some  of  the  people  that  looked  upon  them  said,  "Ah,  here 
we  have  the  veterans  of  the  war,  the  heroes  and  the  victors  of 
all  the  great  battles."  But  stricken  ones  knew  it  was  not  so. 
Tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  the  heroes  came,  but  unseen  to  mortal 
eye,  yet  distinct  to  every  patriot's  memory  and  heart,  were 
WTinthrop,  and  Lyons,  and  Kearney,  and  Ellsworth,  and  Mc- 
Pherson,  and  an  uncounted  army,  heroes  of  unwritten  history, 
save  as  their  deeds,  without  their  names,  had  proclaimed  their 
patriotism.  They  have  left  to  you  and  to  me  the  legacy  of  the 
great  work  which  they  did  for  liberty  and  Union. 

And  what  is  our  duty?  It  is  to  pass  on  the  light!  Light 
means  life,  and  life  means  liberty,  and  liberty  means  the  palm- 
branches  of  universal  triumph. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  35 


ADDRESS. 

BY  HENRY  WATTERSON,   EDITOR   COURIER-JOURNAL,   LOUISVILLE,   KY. 
(Read  February  12,  1894.) 


No  one  of  you  can  know,  as  I  do  know,  what  it  is  to  be  a 
man  without  a  country.  I  have  lived  through  an  epoch  of  sore 
travail.  I  was  born  in  the  national  capital  and  grew  to  man 
hood  there.  I  was  brought  into  close  personal  intimacy  with 
the  men  who  made  this  Union  possible.  I  saw  the  struggle 
to  save  the  Union  and  the  struggle  to  destroy  it.  I  saw  the 
good  men  of  the  North  and  South  join  hands,  bravely  and 
nobly,  to  maintain  the  compromises  upon  which  the  Union 
rested.  I  saw  those  compromises,  one  by  one,  sink  beneath 
the  waves  of  passion  artfully  stimulated  for  party  purposes. 
I  knew  the  secret  springs  of  private  ambition  which  were  play 
ing  upon  the  credulity  of  the  people.  I  stood  by  the  side  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  when  he  delivered  his  first  inaugural  address, 
and,  as  I  looked  out  over  the  vast  assemblage  of  excited  Amer 
icans,  goaded  to  fury  by  the  passions  of  the  time,  I  knew  that 
it  meant  war,  and  the  heart  within  me  (boy's  though  it  was) 
was  ready  to  burst,  because  I  loved  my  country,  its  glorious 
traditions,  and  its  incalculable  uses  to  liberty  and  humanity. 
There  was  no  sunshine  in  the  heavens,  there  was  no  verdure 
on  the  hills;  all  seemed  lost.  The  demon  of  strife  had  taken 
possession  of  the  popular  heart,  the  dove  had  taken  its  flight 
from  the  earth,  leaving  the  raven  in  her  nest.  But  all  was  not 
lost ;  God  was  with  us,  though  we  did  not  know  it,  and  He 
builded  wiser  than  we  knew.  For  are  we  not  here,  tonight, 
our  blessed  Union  restored,  the  government  intact — having 
survived  all  the  assaults  that  would  have  shattered  single  dy 
nasties  and  monarchies — its  credit  rehabilitated,  its  faith  re 
vived,  its  flag  flying  at  last  as  Webster  would  have  had  it  fly, 
over  land  and  sea,  bearing  those  words  dear  to  every  Amer 
ican  heart,  "Union  and  liberty,  now  and  forever,  one  and  in 
separable." 

As  one  of  many  thousand  Southern  men  who  loved  the  Union, 
and  who,  when  the  debate  was  ended  and  the  fight  was  on,  went 
with  their  own  side  in  the  arbitrament  of  arms,  I  cannot  better 


36  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

illustrate  the  situation  than  by  telling  you  a  little  incident  that 
occurred  toward  the  close  of  the  war,  which  has  always  seemed 
to  me,  in  a  half-humorus,  half-melancholy  way,  to  be  very  sug 
gestive.  Mr.  Meredith  P.  Gentry  of  Tennessee  was  one  of  the 
great  orators  of  the  old  Whig  party.  He  was  living  upon 
his  farm  in  Bedford  county  when  a  division  of  the  Union  army 
came  that  way,  commanded  by  Gen.  Rousseau  of  Kentucky.  Gen. 
Rousseau  was  a  great  friend  and  admirer  of  Mr.  Gentry,  and  mean 
ing  to  have  him  come  to  dinner,  he  sent  for  him,  but,  as  a  jest,  put 
his  invitation  in  the  form  of  an  order  of  arrest,  to  be  delivered  by 
an  imposing  provost-guard.  The  old  statesman  was  brought  into 
camp,  fully  persuaded  that  he  was  a  captive,  and,  when  he  came  into 
the  presence  of  Gen.  Rousseau,  still  believing  himself  a  prisoner,  he 
drew  himself  to  his  full  height,  and  said,  in  that  sonorous  voice  that 
has  so  often  electrified  the  halls  of  congress  and  the  hustings,  "Gen. 
Rousseau,  you  know  that  I  love  the  Union;  the  dearest  aspirations 
of  my  heart  were  poured  out  as  libations  upon  the  altars  of  the 
Union ;  my  young  manhood  was  devoted  to  its  service,  I  grew  gray 
in  its  cause;  but,  finally  the  old  stern-wheel  steamboat  Secession 
came  along,  and  I  saw  first  one  neighbor  and  then  another  get 
aboard,  and,  when  all  were  aboard  except  me,  and  I  was  left  alone 
upon  the  shore  and  they  were  about  to  draw  in  the  gangplank,  I 
cried  out,  'Hold  on,  boys,  I'll  go  with  you  if — you — go — to — 
Hades.' ' 

I  was  taken  to  task,  not  long  ago,  for  speaking  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  as  a  man  inspired  of  God.  I  do  not  see  how  any 
body  can  think  otherwise  who  believes  in  the  doctrines  of  in 
spiration  at  all.  If  he  was  not  inspired  of  God,  then  was  no  man 
who  ever  lived  on  earth.  From  Caesar  to  Gladstone  and  Bismarck, 
the  Avorld  has  had  its  statesmen  and  its  soldiers,  men  who  have  risen 
to  eminence  and  power,  step  by  step,  by  a  sort  of  geometric  pro 
gression,  as  it  were,  each  advancement  following  upon  the  other  in 
regular  order,  according  to  well-known  and  well-understood  prin 
ciples  of  cause  and  effect.  They  were  not  what  we  call  men  of 
destiny,  they  were  men  of  talent  whose  lives  had  a  beginning,  a 
middle  and  an  end,  rounding  off  a  history  full,  it  may  be,  of  inter 
esting  and  exciting  events,  but  stil  comprehensive  and  comprehensi 
ble.  The  inspired  men  are  fewer;  when  they  came  or  where 
they  got  their  powers,  by  what  rule  they  lived  and  moved 
and  had  their  being,  we  know  not.  There  is  no  explication 
to  their  lives,  they  rose  in  shadow  and  they  went  in  mist.  We 
followed  them  and  saw  them,  but  we  knew  them  not.  They 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  37 

came,  God's  word  upon  their  lips;  they  did  their  office,  God's 
mantle  about  them ;  and  they  passed  from  the  scene  as  mysteri 
ously  as  they  had  come  upon  it,  leaving  behind  them  a  memory 
half  mortal  and  half  myth.  There  they  were,  distinctly — the 
creations  of  some  special  providence  which  folded  them  round 
about  defying  the  machinations  of  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
devil,  until  their  duty  was  done,  and  then  as  mysteriously 
passing  them  off  the  stage.  Luther,  Shakespeare,  Burns,  even 
Bonaparte  the  archangel  of  war,  havoc  and  ruin, — not  to  go 
back  into  the  dark  ages  for  examples  of  the  hand  of  God 
stretched  out  to  raise  up  to  protect  and  then  to  cast  down 
again.  Tried  by  this  standard,  where  shall  we  find  an  ex 
ample?  Such  is  the  life  and  death  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  a 
story  which  might  stand  as  the  prelude  of  the  most  imperial 
theme  of  modern  times. 

Born  as  lowly  as  the  Son  of  God,  in  a  hovel,  with  no  gleam 
of  light  or  fair  surrounding,  singularly  uncouth  among  the 
uncouth  about  him,  it  was  reserved  for  this  strange  being, 
late  in  life,  without  name  or  fame  or  preparation,  to  be  snatched 
by  unseen  hands  and  entrusted  with  the  reins  of  power  at  a 
supreme  moment  and  given  the  destinies  of  the  nation.  All 
the  great  men  of  his  party — statesmen  trained  and  accom 
plished,  men  like  Sumner  and  Seward  and  Chase,  sent  to 
the  rear;  whilst  this  fantastic  being  was  brought  to  the  front 
and  given  supreme  command  at  this  critical  moment.  It  mat 
ters  not  whether  we  believed  in  what  he  said  or  did,  or  not ; 
it  matters  not  whether  we  were  for  him  or  against  him ;  that 
during  four  years  embracing  such  a  responsibility  as  the 
world  had  never  witnessed  before,  he  filled  the  vast  measure 
allotted  him  in  the  actions  of  mankind  and  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world,  is  to  say  that  he  was  inspired  of  God — for  nowhere  else 
could  he  have  got  the  enormous  equipment  necessary  for  his 
mission. 

Where  did  Shakespeare  get  his  genius?  Where  did  Mozart 
get  his  music?  Who  smote  the  lyre  of  the  Scottish  plowman, 
and  saved  the  life  of  the  German  priest?  God  alone.  And  as 
surely  as  these  were  inspired  of  God,  raised  up  by  God,  so  was 
Abraham  Lincoln ;  and  a  thousand  years  from  this,  no  story, 
no  epic  poem  will  be  filled  with  greater  wonder  or  be  read 
with  deeper  feeling  than  that  which  tells  the  strange  tragedy 
of  his  life  and  death. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 


BY  JOHN  PAUL  EGBERT,  D.  D.,  PASTOR  HOUSE  OF  HOPE,   ST.  PAUL. 
(Read  February  12,  1894.) 


We  are  all  better  men  and  better  citizens  for  the  life  of 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Whenever  a  nation  ceases  to  praise  its 
virtuous  men,  it  ceases  itself  to  be  virtuous  or  patriotic,  and 
I  know  of  no  better  work  that  the  Loyal  Legion  can  do  than 
to  keep  the  minds  of  the  people  attentive  to  those  things  that 
we  have  tested  and  found  to  be  great  things.  The  Loyal 
Legion  has  done  wisely  in  choosing  this  day  to  commemorate 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  one  of  our  great  men,  standing  side  by 
side  with  our  other  greatest  men.  Withgut  the  study  of  these 
two,  I  do  not  see  how  any  American  can  be  either  wise  or 
truly  patriotic ;  and  I  have  no  fear  of  the  loss  of  loyalty  or  of 
patriotism  while  Loyal  Legions  and  Sons  of  the  Revolution 
keep  these  themes  before  the  public  mind. 

We  are  told,  and  we  all  believe  it,  more  and  more,  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  is  the  typical  American.  Thank  God  if 
this  be  true,  for  the  type  is  a  grand  one.  His  life  was  typical 
of  honesty,  sincerity,  simplicity  and  that  perfect  truthfulness 
of  nature  wThich  must  win  the  victory  or  die.  In  Abraham 
Lincoln  it  was  to  win  the  victory  and  die.  He  told  us  that  he 
wTas  elected  president  not  to  preserve  slavery  nor  to  destroy 
it,  but  to  preserve  the  Union.  But  his  deep  truthfulness  of 
character  made  him  unable  to  destroy  the  greater  and  save 
the  less,  to  destroy  the  good  and  save  the  evil,  when  he  was 
brought  face  to  face  with  the  moment  in  which  he  had  to 
write  the  death  warrant  of  the  one  or  the  other.  Looking 
out  of  his  own  sincerity  of  character,  with  that  inheritance  of 
freedom  through  all  his  life  behind  him,  with  all  that  absolute 
saneness  of  mind,  saneness  of  moral  character,  clearness  of 
conscience,  tenderness  of  heart  and  soundness  of  brain,  as 
he  put  his  signature  to  that  emancipation  proclamation,  he 
must  have  felt  a  joy  that  could  not  die,  and  a  thankfulness 
sure  to  abide  with  him  forever  as  he  thought  of  the  new  song 
of  thanksgiving  he  was  putting  in  the  hearts  of  millions  of 
others. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  39 

We  compare  him  in  these  days  with  only  one  other  in  his 
tory;  one  other  so  great  that  he  never  can  be  left  behind  by 
any  one;  whose  genius,  whose  patience,  whose  calmness  of 
intellect,  whose  absolute  sense  of  right,  whose  patient  deter 
mination,  made  it  possible  for  us  to  have  a  government — not 
only  to  win  our  independence  but  to  secure  our  constitution 
and  start  us  on  that  marvelous  journey  of  life  in  which  we  are 
making  such  strides  today.  George  Washington  will  always 
stand  as  the  Father  of  his  country;  but  Abraham  Lincoln  as 
the  Child  of  his  country.  Washington  did  greatly  more  than 
any  other  of  the  host  of  men  about  him  to  make  America 
what  it  became.  He  is  easily  the  first  man  of  his  time.  Amer 
ica  made  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  he  was  easily  the  first  man 
of  his  time.  The  story  of  Lincoln's  life  is  the  story  of  our 
national  civilization,  and  his  character  is  the  summary  of  the 
highest  and  noblest  attributes  of  our  American  life  incarnated 
in  a  person.  And  so,  as  the  attributes  of  Washington  did 
so  much  to  create  our  land  as  it  is,  this  land  gave  us  Abraham 
Lincoln  as  its  highest  product. 

His  mother  was  not  a  Kentucky  woman,  his  mother  was 
not  Kentucky — his  mother  was  these  United  States  of  Amer 
ica;  and  we  glory  in  him  because  he  resembles  so  much  in 
himself  the  greatest  beauties,  the  deepest  health,  the  noblest 
character  of  his  mother.  His  character  was  born  of  the  best 
blood  of  American  life. 

Who  was  his  father?  Mr.  Watterson  has  told  you — God! 
I  mean  it,  and  I  say  it  reverently.  If  God  did  not  call  him 
forth  for  his  great  work,  where  is  there  illustration  of  God's 
presence  in  our  history?  The  very  qualities  which  put  Lin 
coln  at  the  head  of  our  nation,  and  led  him  on  to  success  of 
life  and  of  wrork,  are  the  qualities  that  God  loves  to  exalt  and 
the  successes  of  them  are  praises  of  his  name.  Is  there  any 
other  civilization,  in  all  the  history  of  our  human  progress, 
that  could  have  enabled  a  man  so  thoroughly  to  contradict 
all  his  inheritance,  to  defy  all  his  environment  and  to  claim 
all  that  ever-readiness  of  power  in  the  development  of  his  re 
sources  to  fit  every  emergency  while  going  from  the  lowest 
in  degradation  to  the  highest  in  glory  and  honor,  to  stand 
at  length  by  the  side  of  our  greatest  man,  ay,  to  -take  him  by 
the  hand  and  claim  him  as  an  equal.  Abraham  Lincoln  did 
it — not  some  man  who  was  the  son  of  a  genius,  not  some  man 


40  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

who  had  every  possible  advantage  in  his  early  life — but  Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  out  of  what  he  .was,  being  what  he  was. 

The  praise  of  Lincoln,  the  profound  reverence  for  his  char 
acter  and  the  honest  affection  for  his  person,  becoming  more 
and  more  apparent  in  all  parts  of  our  land,  is  a  promise  of 
greatest  meaning  and  value.  The  best  thing  in  you  and  me 
is  that  we  can  love  that  which  is  better  than  ourselves.  Lov 
ing  is  always  the  method  of  approach  in  moral  life.  That 
which  we  love  supremely,  where  it  is  better  than  ourselves, 
always  leads  us  upward,  and  when  it  has  the  moral  approba 
tion,  with  the  heart's  love,  it  leads  to  imitation.  Why  do  we 
honor  Abraham  Lincoln?  Because  he  was  true,  because  he 
was  faithful,  because  he  deserved  all  the  honor  that  we  could 
give  him.  We  know  that  we  cannot  exalt  him,  but  we  are  bet 
tering  ourselves  by  the  simple  approach  toward  him  of  our 
affections  and  our  admiration.  The  nation's  praise  of  Lin 
coln  is  America's  recognition  of  what  an  American  ought  to 
be,  because  of  what  the  typical  American  has  been. 

I  believe  that  the  American  people  have  seized  upon  just 
those  things  in  the  character  of  Abraham  Lincoln  which  give 
us  the  promise  of  still  nobler  greatness.  Look  at  some  of  the 
sayings,  expressions  of  his  own  life,  he  put  into  circulation 
among  men ;  how  much  of  good  they  have  already  accom 
plished.  Take  that  one  sentence,  "with  malice  toward  none 
and  charity  for  all."  It  has  calmed  thousands  of  hearts,  it 
has  brought  the  sentiment  to  thousands  of  minds  in  the  heat 
of  discussion ;  and,  in  those  days  following  the  war,  how  much 
it  did  to  guide  men  toward  justice  and  brotherly  affection. 
Is  it  not  the  echo  of  that  spirit  represented  in  him,  enlarged 
and  enriched  in  him,  that  made  it  possible  for  us  to  hear,  as 
we  have  heard  here  this  evening,  the  message  coming  to  us 
from  what  we  used  to  think  was  the  other  side,  but  which  we 
now  gladly  think  is  this  side  throughout  the  whole  country? 
Take  that  other  saying  of  his,  which  is  repeated  in  all  our 
patriotic  speeches,  "a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people 
and  for  the  people."  It  was  his  prayer  that  these  should  never 
end.  Do  we  see  the  force  of  it?  The  highest  government  is 
self-government.  That  is  the  highest  use  of  all  the  resources 
and  powers  of  life,  by  the  purest  motive  and  the  highest 
method  for  the  noblest  object.  The  highest  government  is 
the  government  of  God's  own  self,  the  perfect  self-government. 
The  highest  government  for  men,  who  are  made  in  the  image 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES. 


of  God,  is  the  same  government  which  governs  that  sublime 
nature  in  whose  image  we  are  created.  What  is  the  highest 
government  for  one  man,  then,  is  the  highest  and  best  for 
all  men.  It  it  is  the  best  government  for  each  man,  it  is  the 
best  government  for  a  community  of  men;  if  for  a  com 
munity,  then  for  a  nation;  and  that  national  government  which 
gives  to  a  man  not  only  the  best  opportunity,  but  the  highest 
enablement  to  be  his  best  and  do  his  best,  by  the  highest 
motive,  for  the  noblest  object,  is  the  greatest  and  best  and 
most  abiding  national  government  possible  among  men.  I 
take  it  that  Abraham  Lincoln  stands  before  us  all  as  an  il 
lustration  of  just  that  government.  What  other  government 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  would  have  enabled  that  man,  out  of 
his  uncouthness  and  roughness  and  poor  inheritance,  to  use 
his  powers,  by  pure  motives,  for  noble  aims,  by  right  methods, 
until  he  rose  by  them  above  us  all,  head  and  shoulders  above 
the  greatest  among  us?  Our  nation  is  great  not  because  it  is 
rich,  but  because  it  enables  every  man  to  do  his  best  and  to 
be  his  best.  And  do  you  wonder,  then,  that  such  a  man,  who 
had  passed  through  it  all,  who  had  worked  it  all  out  of  his  own 
nature  —  who  had  seen  it  wrought  out  of  God  in  his  own  mak 
ing  —  when  he  would  honor  the  men  who  laid  down  their  lives 
on  that  great  battlefield  in  achieving  this  very  opportunity 
for  all  men  who  would  come  under  our  flag,  should  utter  this 
prayer,  "that  still  there  might  be  preserved  to  the  end  on 
this  earth  a  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for 
the  people?" 

To  lift  our  government,  then,  we  must  lift  ourselves;  and 
the  government  that  does  not  place  the  responsibility  for  self- 
government  upon  every  citizen  is  simply  laying  the  train  which 
will  some  day  destroy  it.  But  that  government  which,  by  its 
righteous  decisions  in  court,  by  its  righteous  teachings  in 
schools,  by  its  righteous  teachings  in  church,  by  its  righteous 
living  in  private  life,  by  its  righteous  execution  of  all  laws, 
by  the  righteous  living,  man  by  man,  of  all  its  people,  gives 
every  man  the  opportunity  and  the  help,  without  hindrance 
of  the  body  politic,  to  be  his  best  and  do  his  best,  in  this  noblest 
fashion,  is  simply  building  life  for  itself  upon  foundations  laid 
under  the  guidance  of  Almighty  God,  because  it  is  best  devel 
oping  his  children  for  that  kingdom  which  is  everlasting. 

Did  any  man  ever  see  this  more  clearly  than  did  Abraham 
Lincoln,  the  last  year  or  two  of  his  life,  say  from  1863?  I  do 


42  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

not  believe  that  he  was  made  great  before  he  became  great; 
I  do  not  believe  that  he  was  fit  for  the  presidency  until  he  be 
came  president;  I  do  not  believe  that  he  was  fit  to  end  his 
career  until  it  was  ended.  He  was  one  of  those  strange,  rare 
men,  who  came  in,  as  he  once  said  of  himself,  "made  by 
events";  shaped  and  guided  by  Providence  through  all  the  in 
tricacies  and  dangers  of  life,  gathering  unto  himself-  the  best, 
the  deepest  and  the  most  abiding  of  that  through  which  he 
moved;  and,  carrying  it  on,  leaving  behind  him  the  ephemeral 
and  the  temporary;  standing  at  last,  when  his  work  is  done, 
representing  to  us  the  permanent  and  abiding  things  in  the 
civilization  which  produced  him. 

When  we  present  such  a  man  as  this  for  the  admiration  of 
our  people,  we  are  giving  them  a  blessing.  When  we  teach 
our  children,  when  we  put  into  our  schools,  from  one  end  of 
this  land  to'  the  other,  the  fundamental  teachings  of  patriotism, 
we  present  the  fundamental  teachings  of  character,  which  will 
abide  not  only  for  the  highest  and  most  enduring  national  life, 
but  will  develop  that  life  which  fits  for  citizenship  in  the  king 
dom  that  is  everlasting. 

And  so  I  think  that  every  meeting  of  loyal,  patriotic  men, 
to  venerate  and  perpetuate  the  memories  of  our  noblest  and 
best,  who  fought  for  truth  and  right,  is  but  continuing  what 
our  fathers  began  in  the  Revolution  and  what  men  battled  for 
thirty  years  or  more  ago ;  they  are  but  continuing  and  hand 
ing  down  to  others  that  which  they  must  have,  without  which 
they  can  be  neither  virtuous  nor  loyal,  neither  citizens  of 
their  country  nor  citizens  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL.   ADDRESSES.  43 


ADDRESS. 


BY  MAHLON  N.  GILBERT,  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  BISHOP,   ST.  PAUL. 
(Read   February    12,    1895.) 


I  cannot  help  thinking  that  such  a  day  as  this  is  a  day— 
if  we  catch  the  spirit  of  it  aright — which  gives  us  new  courage. 
If  there  ever  was  a  dark  day  it  was  the  day  before  the  war; 
it  was  the  day  when  the  incubus  of  that  awful  curse  of  per 
sonal  thraldom  rested  upon  the  people,  and  men  went  on 
saying,  "What  of  the  night?"  There  never  was  a  greater  time 
of  depression,  it  seems  to  me,  than  those  few  months  preced 
ing  the  war;  and  then — up  out  of  the  midst  of  that  Egyptian 
darkness,  like  the  Moses  of  old,  out  of  the  common  people, 
out  of  the  very  principles  lying  enshrined  always  in  the  heart 
of  a  free  government — arose  this  great  man  and  gave  the 
name,  and  focalized  and  incarnated  in  himself  a  great  feeling 
of  hope ;  for  men  from  that  day  went  on,  knowing  that  this 
country  would  be  safe,  knowing  it  because  of  the  self-reliant 
hopefulness  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

We  catch  that  spirit  today.  We  sometimes  despair  of  this 
country — I  have  had  my  moments  of  despair,  when  it  seemed 
as  though  the  principles  of  liberty  were  being  ploughed  un 
der;  but  though  they  were  being  ploughed  under,  they  were 
like  a  fallow  soil  out  of  which  the  seed  again  should  spring. 
And  looking  at  it  from  the  standpoint  of  such  a  day  as  this, 
it  is  impossible  for  us  to  retain  feelings  of  despondency;  we 
believe  that  the  land  shall  be  saved  by  the  power  of  men — not 
so  great  as  he  but  born  with  the  same  spirit.  It  is  this  power 
born  of  the  inherent  principles  of  American  life  that  makes 
this  time  after  all,  all-hopeful.  And  when  the  time  comes,  I 
care  not  how  fraud  may  rule,  I  care  not  how  far  political  cor- 
cuption  may  have  carried  us  down,  I  care  not  how  the  genius 
of  destruction  and  anarchism  may  seem  to  hold  high  carnival; 
nevertheless,  when  the  time  comes,  the  great  heart  of  the 
American  people,  through  its  leaders,  who  are  made  for  the 
occasion,  speaks,  "Hope  on,  this  country  is  safe!" 

This  is  always  the  great  thought  which  comes  to  me  on 
such  a  day  as  this,  the  thought  that,  no  matter  what  may  be 


44  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

the  conditions  of  despondency  surrounding  us,  nevertheless, 
there  is,  deep  down  in  the  American  heart — what?  Patriotism 
—love  for  the  country.  And  when  you  touch  the  feeling  of 
love,  whether  it  be  for  woman  or  for  children;  whether  it  be 
for  God  or  for  country,  you  strike  a  principle  which  moves 
the  universe,  you  strike  a  principle  which  binds  men  together; 
and  in  unity  there  is  strength,  and  such  strength,  as  it  marches 
on  down  the  ages,  like  some  great  giant,  armed  cap-a-pie,  always 
brings  victory. 

While  I  could  dwell  on  such  a  thought  as  this,  I  will  not; 
yet,  as  I  look  forward  into  the  future,  from  the  high  standpoint 
of  such  a  day,  I  catch  glimpses  of  the  ideality  of  this  republic 
realized  more  and  more ;  I  catch  glimpses  of  the  spirit  which 
breathed  into  you  men  as  you  marched  forth,  not  knowing 
whither  you  went  and  not  knowing  how  great  you  were ;  and 
I  see  it  gathering  in  force  as  the  years  go  on  ;  I  see  it  over 
coming  fraud ;  I  see  it  assimilating  within  itself  all  the  vast 
hosts  of  the  world  as  they  pour  upon  our  shores;  I  see  it  mak 
ing  possible  all  the  possibilities  of  the  constitution  and  of  the 
Union.  And  so  looking  on,  the  world  seems  brighter,  because 
of  our  country  and  its  principles. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  45 


ADDRESS. 

BY  CYRUS  NORTHROP,  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY   OF  MINNESOTA. 
(Read  February  12,   1895.) 


I  have  been  remarking  tonight  that  most  people  can  die 
without  the  world's  being  very  much  afflicted;  it  is  a  kind 
of  vulgarizing  practice,  a  bestial  condition  of  things,  when 
humanity  can  see  all  of  humanity  but  itself  go  down  into  the 
grave  without  a  tear.  And  I,  for  my  part,  thank  God  that, 
along  the  mountain  tops  of  history,  there  are  still  to  be  seen 
men  standing  so  high  that  the  rest  of  the  human  race  must 
see  them  and  look  at  them,  whether  they  wrill  or  not,  and  mark 
their  disappearance  when  they  go  beyond  the  horizon  into 
the  unseen  world.  And  now  I  thank  God  that  there  has  come 
to  our  country  such  a  man  as  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  that  he 
stands  in  history  just  where  he  does. 

I  want  you  to  note  one  fact :  There  were,  formerly,  in  the 
United  States  senate,  men  of  very  great  prominence.  Just 
run  over  in  your  mind,  what  kind  of  men  they  were.  There 
was  John  J.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky;  John  Bell,  of  Tennessee; 
Geo.  M.  Berrien,  of  Georgia;  William  P.  Mangum  and  Geo. 
E.  Badger,  of  North  Carolina;  Reverdy  Johnson,  of  Maryland; 
and  John  M.  and  Thomas  Clayton,  of  Delaware — all  these 
from  the  southern  states,  to  say  nothing  of  the  men  from  the 
north.  Great  men  and  men  of  power.  How  many  of  them 
live  in  the  memory  of  the  present  generation?  Nine-tenths 
of  them  are  covered  by  the  waters  of  oblivion,  as  completely 
almost  as  if  they  had  never  lived.  The  student  of  history 
gathers  up  their  names ;  men  who  lived  when  they  were  in 
the  senate  remember  their  speeches,  but  they  are  going  to  be 
forgotten  and  buried  in  the  oblivion  of  time. 

No  such  fate  awaits  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Why? 
Wras  he  the  greatest  man  intellectually  that  this  country  has 
produced?  Not  at  all.  Daniel  Webster  had  a  mightier  in 
tellect  than  Abraham  Lincoln,  if  you  look  at  it  as  a  matter  of 
pure  reason.  Was  he  the  godliest  man  that  this  country  has 
ever  produced?  No.  Was  he  the  only  man  that  was  patriotic? 
No,  no,  no.  There  was  not  a  true  soldier  who  marched  under 


46  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

the  flag  to  face  death  who  had  not  as  much  patriotism  in  him 
as  had  Abraham  Lincoln.  Was  he  unselfish — utterly  unselfish 
like  a  Christ?  No,  he  wished  to  be  United  States  senator  from 
Illinois  and  he  tried  hard  for  it;  and  when  he  could  not  get  it, 
he  wanted  to  be  president  and  he  got  it — a  noble  and  an 
honorable  ambition  bravely  carried  out.  This  man,  I  tell  you, 
was  eminently  human,  he  was  no  god ;  no  divine  creature,  but 
he  was  so  human  that  he  will  live  as  long  as  the  human  heart 
shall  live,  because  he  was  so  true  to  it;  and  when  you  sum  up 
Abraham  Lincoln,  what  is  it  that  makes  him  live?  What  is 
it  that  makes  the  heart  warm  to  him?  When  I  left  that  ban 
quet  hall  in  St.  Paul  t\vo  years  ago  and  was  met  by  a  prominent 
Democrat  and  he  said  something  to  me  about  it,  I  said,  "I 
loved  Lincoln."  Said  he,  "Didn't  we  all  love  him?"  Why 
is  it  that  we  all  loved  him  without  regard  to  party?  Well,  I 
will  tell  you :  It  is  the  secret  of  winning  love  anywhere,  it 
is  the  secret  of  love  in  high  places  or  in  low  places;  it  is  the 
secret  of  a  successful  life;  it  is  the  key-note  to  a  vital  human 
ity;  it  is  a  star  of  Bethlehem  pointing  to  the  progress  of  human 
ity.  Abraham  Lincoln  lives  and  will  live  because,  with  a 
great  intellect,  with  a  patriotic  heart,  with  devotion  to  country, 
with  wisdom,  with  all  those  qualities  which  mark  a  statesman 
and  prepare  a  man  for  leadership,  he  had  also  a  great,  loving 
heart  which,  touched  by  all  the  affinities  which  bind  heart  to  heart, 
made  him  tender  to  everyone  and  anxious  for  the  peace  and  joy 
and  happiness  of  every  one.  This  is  Lincoln,  the  man  "who  did 
not  sleep  Thursday  nights  because  Friday  morning  was  the  time 
for  execution,"  and  he  wanted  to  be  ready,  if  it  was  necessary,  to 
save  a  man;  and  whether  it  was  or  not,  he  could  not  sleep  with 
death  impending  over  men  over  whose  life  he  had  control.  That 
is  Lincoln  listening  to  the  words  of  little  Blossom  pleading  for  her 
brother  who  was  to  die  because,  after  one  night  of  exhaustion  in 
\vatching,  he  undertook  the  duty  of  another  suffering  boy,  and  slept 
on  his  guard  and  wras  condemned  to  die.  That  is  the  Lincoln. 
Lincoln  telling  stories  to  the  reporter  while  waiting  for  the 
news  to  come  from  a  battlefield ;  Lincoln  retiring  to  his  room, 
praying  that  God  will  give  victory  to  the  armies  of  the  Union 
and  confident  thereafter  that  victory  will  come. 

You  cannot  take  this  man  in  and  bind  him  to  any  church. 
No  church  can  claim  him.  The  agnostics  cannot  claim  him ; 
no  mere  sect  can  claim  Abraham  Lincoln;  and  I  am  glad  it 
is  so.  I  am  glad  he  was  not  a  Congregationalist,  as  I  happen 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  47 

to  be;  I  am  glad  he  was  not  a  Presbyterian;  I  am  glad  he  was 
not  anything  that  any  particular  denomination  can  take  and 
claim,  but  I  am  glad  also  that  he  was  not  the  man  mentioned 
in  the  Bible  who  said  in  his  heart,  "There  is  no  God."  No 
body  ever  did  say  in  his  heart,  ''There  is  no  God,"  except  per 
sons  of  that  class  mentioned  in  the  Bible,  and  Abraham  Lin 
coln  did  not  belong  to  that  class. 

Reverent,  reverent,  reverent!  Oh,  he  knew  what  was 
meant  by  the  God  of  battles;  he  knew  what  was  meant  when 
armies  were  going  into  conflict,  clashing  against  each  other, 
and  death  was  in  the  air,  and  the  nation's  life  hung  upon  the 
result  of  the  conflict;  he  knew  that  there  was  a  God;  and  the 
man  that  in  that  time  of  trial  came  to  stand  in  a  closer  and 
more  reverent  relation  to  the  Builder  of  the  Universe  is  a  man 
over  whom  it  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  fight  any  theological 
battles.  He  knew  God  and  he  worshiped  Him,  and  when  he 
went  from  earth,  God  called  him  home. 

I  have  never  in  the  least  despaired  of  the  republic.  I  do 
not  share  in  the  view  of  those  who  are  continually  pointing 
out  the  possibilities  of  this  nation's  going  to  pieces,  of  this 
Union's  being  subverted  by  revolution,  one  element  striking 
against  another  until  we  have  confusion  worse  confounded 
and  anarchy  comes  in  like  night  and  closes  the  scene.  I  take 
no  interest  in  any  of  these  prognostications.  Here  is  a  na 
tion,  it  is  founded  on  justice,  it  is  founded  on  the  principle 
of  equal  rights;  every  man  in  theory  and  before  the  law  has 
the  same  rights.  You  cannot  make  anything  in  the  way  of 
government  that  is  more  fair  and  equal  and  just  to  all  than 
this.  This  nation  was  founded,  in  every  part  of  it,  by  men 
who  believed  in  the  rule  of  divine  Providence  and  the  power 
of  the  world  to  come,  and  those  influences  are  still  with  us. 
You  may  laugh,  you  may  sneer,  you  may  go  out  on  the  street 
and  talk  in  a  pessimistic  and  agnostic  way;  you  may  make  a 
spectacle  of  yourself  as  an  unworthy  son  of  a  noble"  father, 
but  I  tell  you  when  the  hour  of  trial  comes,  when  the  bell 
rings  and  the  call  is  made  for  all  that  is  honorable  and  manly 
in  America  to  stand  up  and  be  counted  on  the  side  of  law 
and  order  and  justice  and  right,  there  will  be  such  a  response 
every  time  as  will  establish  your  hearts  and  make  you  feel 
that  the  glory  of  the  days  of  Lincoln  has  not  departed. 

And  now,  in  conclusion :  If  you  talk  pessimism  you  are  an 
apostle  of  pessimism,  whether  you  believe  in  or  desire  pessim- 


48  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

ism  or  not.  If  you  go  around  insisting  that  things  are  getting 
worse  all  the  time,  you  are  creating  a  public  sentiment  that 
helps  things  to  grow  worse  all  the  time.  You  can  take  your 
friends  into  your  cellar  and  keep  them  there,  if  you  wish,  and 
they  will,  after  awhile — if  they  ever  come  up — come  up  look 
ing  very  much  like  the  potato  vines  that  have  gradually  come 
out  from  the  potatoes  you  have  carefully  placed  there  for 
your  comfort  and  convenience.  But  do  not  take  them  there; 
take  them  into  your  living  rooms,  take  them  into  the  rooms 
where  the  sun  shines  in — where  everything  is  bright  and  joy 
ous  and  cheerful ;  let  them  feel  with  you  that  God  is  there 
and  that  the  atmosphere  is 'good  and  that  things  are  bright 
and  promising,  and  you  will  create  a  sentiment  of  this  kind 
which  in  itself  will  be  helpful  and  healing  and  to  a  certain 
extent  will  remove  the  evils  which  now  threaten  us. 

Am  I  not  right?  Do  you  not  know  it?  Every  man  that 
joins  in  this  cry  of  "Everything  is  going  to  the  dogs,"  is  doing 
an  injury  to  the  country,  and  to  society  and  to  peace.  I  tell 
you  things  are  not  going  to  the  dogs.  I  am  not  going  to  the 
dogs  myself,  if  I  can  help  it.  I  do  not  mean  you  shall  go  to 
the  dogs  if  I  can  help  it.  Everything  is  going  to  grow  better 
if  we  will  only  let  it  grow  better  and  be  helpful  to  it.  All  we 
want  is  faith  and  hope  and  charity;  all  we  want  is  brotherly 
feeling,  a  kindly  regard  for  the  interests  of  humanity,  a  willing 
ness  to  live  and  let  live,  to  be  helpful,  to  do  what  we  can  to 
lift  one  another  up.  Gracious  heavens !  we  want  the  spirit  that 
was  in  Jesus  Christ  and  the  spirit  that  was  in  Abe  Lincoln,  and 
then  this  country  will  do  well  enough,  in  spite  of  all  the  legislation 
that  an  unusually  idiotic  congress  could  possibly  produce. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  49 


ADDRESS. 

BY  GENERAL  JOHN  C.   BLACK,   U.   S.   VOLS. 
(Read  February  12,  1897.) 


Within  this  century  curious  archaeologists  uncovered  the 
ruins  of  Asia  Minor  and  brought  to  sight  monuments  and  in 
scriptions  of  vast  nations  who  once  dwelt  there  and  filled  all 
the  earth  with  the  pageants  of  power  and  pomp. 

On  the  walls  thus  rescued  were  found  the  inscriptions  and 
records  by  which  the  vanished  sought  to  tell  their  highest 
claims  to  human  remembrance  and  regard;  chapter  after  chap 
ter  of  woe  and  ruin;  captives  in  chains;  awful  lists  of  the  dead; 
on  the  cumulation  of  all  which  rose  the  ghastly  ghosts  that 
pleaded  with  us  for  remembrance.  Thank  God  that  they  per 
ished  before  the  whole  earth  was  desolated!  That  their  bloody 
days  died  ere  we  were  born,  and  that  the  cycling  ages  have 
brought  us  to  the  higher  planes  whereon  he  who  pleads  for 
recollection  must  show  himself  in  peace  or  war  a  lover  of  his 
kind.  We  have  changed  with  the  times. 

The  pens  of  our  historians  and  of  our  poets  have  been 
very  busy  since  April  of  1865;  all  over  the  land  thousands 
of  orators  have  in  ceaseless  emulation  told  the  story;  from  the 
capitol  to  the  borders  of  the  seas  Phidian  genius  has  reared 
monuments,  and  affection  told  in  bronze  and  granite  the  claims 
of  Lincoln  for  remembrance.  Not  on  one  lip;  not  in  one  line; 
not  on  one  tablet,  rests  that  fame  of  needless  slaughter;  but 
always  from  the  accessory  pictures  of  conflict  and  the  sound 
ing  tales  of  brothers'  battles,  the  ascriptions  and  the  love  are 
to  one  great  figure  which  even  in  the  midst  of  struggles,  tow 
ered  aloft  with  sad  glance  and  tear-dimmed  eyes;  mourning 
the  stricken  of  the  hosts,-  consoling  the  woeful  homes  touched 
by  war,  striking  the  chains  from  human  limbs,  preserving  ever 
with  the  tenacity  of  devoted  love,  the  union  of  the  states;  the 
figure,  not  of  a  conqueror  or  partisan  or  chief,  but  of  Father 
Abraham. 

I  wish  I  could  recall  to  you,  tell  to  you,  all  that  those  two 
words  meant  in  the  camps — and  to  the  fighting  men;  the  army 
knew  that  while  Father  Abraham  was  in  Washington  all  the 


50  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

energies  of  the  American  nation  were  at  their  backs;  that 
while  Father  Abraham  was  commander-in-chief,  the  volunteer 
had  a  friend  and  the  regular  a  merciful  chief;  each  officer 
knew  that  he  was  expected  to  do  his  best  and  to  implicitly 
trust  for  recognition  and  support  to  Father  Abraham.  And 
so  they  came  by  millions.  And  while  one  of  that  vast  host 
of  the  Union  on  land  and  sea  survives,  there  will  be  found  a  man 
who  cherishes,  loves,  and  honors  the  name,  the  work,  and  the 
glory  of  Father  Abraham. 

But  those  days  are  memories.  We  are  in  a  new  presence ; 
among  people  who  were  not  born  when  we  were  soldiers;  let 
us  teach  them  the  story  of  our  chief  that  it  may  be  heard  for 
ever. 

The  old  South  was  a  very  pleasant  land!  Sunny,  forest- 
covered,  stored  with  fish  and  game;  fertile  and  producing 
abounclingly  to  labor;  men  and  women  loved  it  and  yielded 
to  its  lifelong  spell.  How  potent  was  that  spell  those  only  know 
who  have  felt  its  thrall;  it  colored  the  ideals  of  life;  it  shaped 
the  habits  of  men  and  accented  the  speech  of  all  its  dwellers; 
it  knew  its  own  weakness  and  became  fiercely  antagonistic  to 
all  who  did  not  declare  its  weakness  strength,  and  worship 
at  its  intolerable  shrine ;  there  was  but  one  alternative  to  a 
free  man  dwelling  in  the  whole  region  which  slavery  occupied, 
allegiance  or  exile!  Slavery  was  exclusive;  it  wanted  to  be  let 
alone,  it  did  not  favor  emigration  nor  travel  nor  local  move 
ment  ;  hence  the  great  trails  of  emigration  usually  moved  out 
side  it  and  thus  had  to  cross  from  east  to  west  the  borders  of 
Illinois  which,  based  on  the  Northern  line  of  liberty,  projected 
like  a  mighty  promontory  far  towards  the  center  of  the  antici 
pated  empire  of  slavery.  From  this  it  resulted,  very  early, 
that  many  restless  and  "misfitted"  peoples,  those  who  loved 
the  cause  of  freedom  and  who  had  begun  to  feel  the  glacier-like 
pressure  of  slavery,  moved  from  their  native  seats,  and  fleeing 
from  the  invisible  presence  of  bondage,  begun  their  exodus 
across  this  lovely  land;  they  were  attracted  by  its  popular 
government  and,  perchance,  were  deterred  from  further  jour 
neying  by  the  mystic  terrors  that  sentineled  the  middle  west; 
that  patroled  the  trails  and  vast  solitudes  stretching  from  the 
Father  of  Waters  to  the  far  Rockies — and  thus,  many  of  them 
stopped  in  Illinois. 

They  found  that  an  ancient  civilization  had  preceded  them  ; 
the  trails  of  the  Canadian  on  his  way  from  Quebec  and  Mon- 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  51 

treal  to  the  Arcadian  recesses  of  Louisiana  had  run  north  and 
south  there  for  nearly  a  century;  the  voyagers  had  lingered  at 
Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  and  around  the  abandoned  monuments 
of  the  mound  builders.  Slavery — with  them  a  patriarchal  in- 
institution — they  attempted  long  before  Illinois  was  a  separate 
territory  to  set  up  beside  their  domestic  altars ;  in  the  new 
arena  in  the  solitude  of  a  region  more  remote  from  the  center 
of  affairs  than  is  Alaska  now,  they  renewed  the  old  fight  for 
the  possession  of  the  world;  in  the  contest  freedom  and  slav 
ery  grappled  for  control  and  slavery  lost.  So  the  travelers  of 
later  days  found  written  over  the  gate  of  every  trail  and  high 
way  that  led  into  the  state — "Dedicated  to  Freedom!" 

And  so  it  was  that  early  in  this  century  Thomas  and  Nancy 
abandoning  their  humble  Southern  home  and  seeking  the 
Northwest,  came  to  Illinois.  The  earth  was  colder,  more  stub 
born,  less  inviting  where  they  rested,  than  whence  they  came, 
but  it  was  free. 

The  world  had  much  in  store  for  that  young  household. 
A  few  years  before  (it  is  eighty-eight  years  now)  the  mother, 
in  a  rude  cabin,  in  the  midst  of  a  clearing  of  a  few  acres,  made 
by  the  toil  of  her  absent  husband,  had  brought  forth  in  agony 
of  maternity,  in  the  solitude  of  the  Kentucky  forests  and  in 
the  only  presence  of  her  God,  the  man  child  whom  all  the  ages 
are  to  rise  and  reverence. 

Slavery  with  its  plaited  scourge  drove  forth  this  little 
family,  and  by  and  by  the  infant  whose  cradle  had  been  rocked 
in  the  near  sound  of  chains  arose  and  wrested  away  the  scourge 
and  redeemed  his  birthplace  forever. 

No  origin  was  ever  more  honorable  or  humbler,  not  even 
that  of  the  camel  driver  of  Arabia,  or,  let  me  speak  it  reverent 
ly,  the  stable-mangered  Babe  of  Bethlehem.  Yet,  when  I  look 
over  the  array  of  the  sons  of  men  whose  influence  endures 
forever,  it  occurs  to  me  that  those  who  have  greatly  benefited 
mankind  have  always  been  those  who  have  sprung  from  the 
depths  of  the  wrorld,  and  grown  upward  through  all  pressure 
with  tremendous  native  power,  until,  when  in  their  full  stature, 
they  are  part  and  parcel  of  all  that  is  beneath  them  ;  to  do 
the  world's  work  a  man  must  know  the  world,  from  those  depths 
which  we  rarely  see  to  the  surface  brilliant  with  foliage  and  flowers. 

The  family  began  the  struggle  for  existence,  absolutely  without 
advantage;  the  child  continued  it  until  he  was  a  man,  his  bare  feet 


52  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

on  the  bottom  rock ;  without  money ;  without  education ;  without  an 
alleviating  circumstance,  he  grappled  the  hand  of  the  sympathetic 
democrary  about  him,  of  which  he  was  part,  and  begun  his  slow 
upward  way.  His  first  struggles  and  triumphs  were  all  physical ;  he 
was  a  good  boatman  and  a  fair  traveler ;  he  was  a  good  axeman  and 
a  faithful  clerk;  he  met  all  comers  in  the  village  ring  and  was 
the  matchless  wrestler  and  all-conquering  athlete;  by  his  sinewy 
strength,  exercised  not  in  vindictiveness,  but  in  rustic  rivalry, 
he  won  the  first  place  among  his  simple  peers,  maintaining 
it  in  many  peaceful  and  one  warlike  campaign. 

I  will  not  try  to  trace  the  development  of  the  inner  young 
man;  let  it  suffice  that  on  his  humble  head  and  into  his  humble 
heart  were  poured  by  turns  the  passions  of  love,  despair,  ambi 
tion  ;  the  wish  for  approbation ;  the  worthy  desire  to  rise  in  the 
world;  at  last  the  longing  to  exercise  the  full  measure  of 
leadership  among  men.  And  to  this  end  he  entered  the  law ; 
that  broad  but  steep  and  dangerous  highway  over  which  so 
many  have  passed  on  to  ruin  or  to  fame.  It  was  during  his 
practice  of  this  chosen  profession  that  I — then  a  boy — first 
saw  and  knew  him,  and  I  ask  your  indulgence  while  I  briefly 
sketch  his  surroundings. 

The  annual  session  of  the  circuit  courts  drew  to  the  court 
houses  of  the  respective  counties  the  brightest  lawyers  of  the 
entire  circuits ;  they  rode  with  the  court  on  its  rounds ;  they 
were  in  constant  forensic  struggle  with  each  other;  and 
studied  the  common  law,  that  perennial  stream  from  whose 
richness  come  constitutions  and  statutes,  and  the  varied  safe 
guards  of  property,  person  and  liberty.  They  journeyed  by 
the  old  stage  or  by  private  conveyance,  often  on  horseback; 
they  were  out  in  the  free  wind,  and  breathed  the  free  air,  and 
saw  the  free  sun,  and  looked  upon  the  opening  days  of  a  free 
and  unsubdued  land;  they  were  part  and  parcel  of  a  young 
free  commonwealth ;  their  three  great  landmarks  were  Magna 
Charta,  the  Constitution,  and  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  They  de 
manded  that  their  leaders  should  be  worthy  of  their  environ 
ment,  and  they  were. 

It  was  a  matter  of  universal  moment  that  the  court  should 
be  treated  with  all  honors ;  its  great  lawyers  sharing  the  respect 
tendered  to  the  judge ;  yet  how  simple  and  unpretending  was 
every  step  taken  in  the  public  gaze.  When  the  great  assize 
day  arrived,  the  judge  came  and  the  lawyers  in  his  company, 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  53 

each  known  to  youthful  eyes,  and  conspicuous  among  them 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  simple  garb — often  a  linen  coat  and  rusty  black 
garments,  with  rough  boots,  and  a  slouch  hat  to  complete  his 
attire — greeting  every  passerby  with  hearty  speech,  mingling 
familiarity  and  pleasantry  with  all  the  people  on  the  streets 
or  in  the  hotels  or  in  the  court  house.  I  most  vividly  recall 
him  as  a  figure  in  the  court  room,  when,  with  slow  stride,  he 
moved  back  and  forth,  outside  the  bar,  but  in  the  view  of  ail, 
his  tall  form  stooped,  his  hand  behind  his  back  grasping  the 
opposing  elbow,  listening,  observing,  thinking",  known  of  all, 
regarded  of  all,  and,  years  before  the  first  thought  of  great  honors 
turned  'towards  him,  called  Honest  Abe ;  powerful  then  alike  before 
court  and  jury  for  his  honesty,  ability,  his  knowledge  of  the  people 
and  their  law,  and  taking  that  place  in  the  common  heart,  from 
which  he  was  never  to  be  driven. 

I  remember  well  other  great  actors  on  the  civil  side  of 
that  period.  Judge  Trumbull,  cold,  passionless,  an  imperson 
ated  intellect,  winning  by  the  mere  force  of  brain;  never  dear 
to  the  people,  yet  always  regarded  by  them,  whose  high  for 
tune  it  became,  after  Lincoln  and  Douglas  had  passed  away, 
to  secure  to  the  world,  by  the  framing  of  the  fourteenth  amend 
ment  and  the  civil  rights  act,  all  the  results  of  their  struggles. 
Judge  Douglas,  whose  massive  head,  broad  bosom  and  elec 
tric  eyes  presented  him  to  the  fascinated  gaze  of  men  as  a 
mighty  ruler,  a  Titan  in  a  struggle,  a  measureless  force  in 
action.  His  name  was  familiar  in  all  our  households  and 
known  to  thinkers  everywhere ;  his  superb  genius,  resting  upon 
a  solid  character  and  united  with  a  warm  heart  and  personal 
fidelity  to  friends,  made  him  beloved  to  associates  as  few  men 
ever  have  been.  He  laid  an  unbreakable  charm  upon  those 
about  him.  To  this  day  old  men  who  knew  him  two  genera 
tions  ago  wall  tell  with  kindled  faces  the  story  of  his  acquain 
tance  with  them  as  the  precious  reminiscences  of  their  lives. 
And  Douglas  loved  his  country,  and  believed  that  only  by  the 
triumph  of  his  policy  could  it  be  preserved.  Yet  when  that 
policy  was  rejected  by  the  people  he  subordinated  his  own 
judgment  and  linked  his  high  fame  to  his  rival;  the  part  that 
he  performed  was  only  less  important  than  that  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln  himself.  For  had  Douglas  halted  in  his  country's  peril, 
who  can  foretell  what  would  have  followed?  He  did  not  hesi 
tate  ;  in  the  supreme  hour  he  forgot  all  but  country.  He,  too, 
lives  forever! 


54  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

But  not  yet  did  these  two  men,  or  either  of  them,  measure 
the  majesty  of  the  careers  that  destiny  was  opening  to  them, 
or  understand  that  in  the  near  future  they  were  to  be  the 
foremost  figures  of  a  great  era.  They  were  at  work,  in  the 
same  state,  each  loving  his  country  and  his  fellow  men,  each 
striving  for  preferment  and  honor,  each  a  rival  of  the  other. 
Douglas  was  easily  the  first  man  of  the  American  senate;  he 
was  the  great  conservative  leader  of  the  time;  he  was  re 
nowned  at  home  and  abroad ;  it  recalls  the  stories  of  chivalry 
to  hear  how  in  1856  and  in  1858  the  country-bred  lawyer  whom 
I  have  pictured  to  you  challenged  him  to  a  contest  that  should 
be  mortal  to  the  supremacy  and  the  ideas  of  one  or  the  other. 

But  the  times  were  out  of  joint.  The  irrepressible  con 
flict  was  forcing  its  way  to  the  front ;  it  was  in  vain  that  men 
and  women  everywhere  deplored  the  situation;  that  the 
churches  prayed  for  concord;  that  the  press  declared  there  was 
no  necessary  trouble ;  that  state  conventions  and  legislatures 
and  congress  passed  votes  of  confidence  and  enacted  ponderous 
compromises;  resolutions  do  not  arrest  the  laws  of  gravita 
tion,  nor  stay  the  loosened  passions  of  men.  The  conflict  had 
been  inherited  by  those  who  had  to  fight  for  the  constitution 
when  adopted,  who  declared  its  purpose  to  be  to  extend  and  per 
petuate  the  blessings  of  liberty,  yet  at  the  same  time  bound 
the  national  authorities  to  protect  slavery  and  surrender  the 
slave !  It  thus  inaugurated  the  contest — at  first  an  amiable 
discussion,  but  waxing  fiercer  and  fiercer  as  opposing  civiliza 
tions  under  one  flag  stretched  out  their  joining  borders  into 
new  lands,  until  all  citizens  were  irresistibly  drawn  into  hos 
tile  ranks.  Everywhere  aspirants  for  the  distinction  of  leader 
ship  arose.  In  the  congress  it  fell  to  Seward,  but  the  people 
not  satisfied,  withheld  the  baton,  awaiting  the  coming  man, 
they  knew  not  and  they  cared  not  who,  but  he  must  be  a  man 
as  wide  in  his  purpose  as  their  own;  as  instinct  with  humanity; 
as  resolute  for  the  prevalence  of  right,  as  devoted  to  the  union 
of  the  states.  He  must  be  a  man  who  could  plead  at  the  bar 
of  the  Eternal  for  justice;  who  could  know  and  feel  all  that  he 
said ;  could  cry  up  from  sorrows  with  a  voice  that  should  car 
ry  to  the  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth  the  whole  infinite  cry  of  the 
oppressed,  and  yet  be  so  loving  that  the  oppressors  should  go  un 
harmed.  Who  was  this  man  and  whence  would  he  come,  and  what 
should  give  him  opportunity?  And  to  this  the  answer  of  the  peo 
ple  came: 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  55 

Lincoln,  an  everyday  man ;  not  in  the  front  of  his  com 
pany,  but  on  its  right,  preserving  the  alignment  of  the  people; 
abreast  of  them ;  touching  elbow  with  them ;  moving  and  halt 
ing  with  them;  rejoicing  and  mourning,  shouting  and  crying 
with  them ;  all  but  divinely  wise  to  their  needs  and  wishes  and 
so  their  highest  oracle  and  the  best  instrument  for  the  de 
signs  of  Providence;  so  plain;  so  simple;  tall  and  stooping, 
with  sad  face  and  earnest  eyes.  An  American,  a  pioneer,  a 
backwoodsman,  a  most  tender  and  earnest  and  eloquent  man. 

He  will  pass  soon  forever  from  such  portraitures.  Art 
which  loves  the  beautiful  and  worships  the  great,  will  chisel 
his  homely  face  anew,  and  in  the  future  American  pantheon 
he  will  be  majestic,  but  not  art  nor  time  will  change  that  lov 
ing  heart  nor  that  grand  character;  they  will  endure  in  grow 
ing  grandeur ;  to  them  "all  time  will  be  a  temple  and  all  sea 
sons  summer."  One  refulgent  sentence  will  ever  crown  his 
head,  "With  malice  towards  none,  with  charity  for  all." 

Behold  then  the  occasion  and  note  the  leader  to  be,  but 
all  unconscious  of  the  waiting  majesty  and  glory.  When  the 
campaign  of  1858  closed,  Mr.  Lincoln,  although  beaten,  was 
easily  one  of  the  foremost  men  in  the  Union,  because  he  had 
recognized  the  irrepressible,  because  he  had  proclaimed  the 
truth,  because  he  had  brought  to  the  American  mind  its  clear 
est  perception  of  the  shrouded  issue  soon  to  convulse  the 
Union. 

I  pass  over  all  details;  two  rushing  years — and  swords  were 
flashing  and  the  cannon's  opening  roar  had  called  the  land  to 
arms.  How  awful  it  was  in  that  day  to  stand  on  the  brink 
of  that  red  sea  and  strive  to  find  the  way  of  divine  deliverance 
through  its  misty  waves,  and  to  mark  through  the  future 
clouds  and  tempests,  safety  for  the  Union  and  the  people  and 
liberty  on  the  farther  side !  Who  could  foretell  the  issue  of 
war?  Who  knew  where  victory  would  abide?  Who  foresaw 
what  would  happen  when  already  the  bayonets  were  massing 
from  the  Potomac  to  the  gulf,  and  the  cries  of  rebellion  were 
being  echoed  across  the  Atlantic  by  sympathetic  tyranny? 
The  peaceful  and  unarmed  Union  taken  by  surprise,  blinded 
and  confused  by  the  fierce  blows,  gasped  and  trembled  and 
turned  to  the  president. 

Never  was  human  need  sorer;  never  human  duty  greater 
than  when  on  March  4,  1861,  the  president,  having  communed 
with  the  divine  ruler,  and  having  listened  to  the  voices  of  the 


56  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

people,  spoke  the  purposes  of  the  hour.  In  his  inaugural  he 
was  historian  and  prophet;  citizen  and  ruler;  the  beseeching 
brother,  the  unyielding  commander-in-chief  into  whose  hands 
the  people  had  placed  the  constitution  and  bade  him  observe 
it,  the  Union,  and  bade  him  preserve  it.  Patriot,  loving  fellow 
countryman,  and  president,  he  faced  the  tempestuous  future,  as  it 
rushed,  on  the  present,  and  declared  the  uncompromising,  sorrow 
ing,  inexorable  purpose  of  the  people ;  in  that  high  hour  he  spoke 
the  whole  unalterable  scheme  of  war  and  peace;  he  surveyed  the 
stomiy  sky  and  through  the  furious  clouds,  perceiving  the  fixed 
and  steadfast  star  of  duty,  by  that  laid  the  course  and  charted  the 
journey  of  the  republic.  Turning  to  the  world  he  said : 

"A  disruption  of  the  federal  Union,  heretofore  only 
menaced,  is  now  formidably  attempted.  I  hold  that  in  the 
contemplation  of  universal  law  and  of  the  constitution, 
the  union  of  these  states  is  perpetual.  I,  therefore,  con 
sider  that  in  view  of  the  constitution  and  the  laws,  the 
Union  is  unbroken,  and  to  the  extent  of  my  ability  I  shall 
take  care,  as  the  constitution  itself  expressly  enjoins  upon 
me,  that  the  laws  of  the  Union  shall  be  faithfully  executed 
in  all  the  states." 

Then  came  the  pleading  with  the  rebellious  people : 

"You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves 
the  aggressors.  You  can  have  no  oath  registered  in  heav 
en  to  destroy  the  government ;  while  I  shall  have  the  most 
solemn  one  to  preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it.  I  am  loath 
to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not 
be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must 
not  break  our  bonds  of  affection." 

And  then  that  appeal  to  the  spirits  and  glory  of  the  great 
dead  and  to  the  loyal  living : 

"The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from  every 
battlefield  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and 
hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the 
the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely 
they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 

Not  yet,  my  companions,  has  the  full  majesty  of  that  in 
augural  address  been  measured ;  it  will  be  part  of  the  historic 
lore  of  the  republic  to  latest  time. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL,   ADDRESSES.  57 

And  now  the  citizen  became  the  president;  from  that  hour 
of  inauguration  until  the  end  he  moved  in  the  sight  and  the 
hearing  of  the  world. 

If  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  sincere  man  he  had  one  paramount 
and  all-controlling  mission;  he  felt  and  knew  one  great  duty; 
he  had  in  view  one  end;  to  that  everything  was  subordinate; 
all  things  existed  for  that;  all  was  done  and  spoken  for  that; 
so  his  inaugural  declared,  so  subsequent  events  and  speech 
testified.  Believing  that  he  \vas  sincere  and  earnest,  the  study 
of  his  future  career  becomes  an  inspiration.  We  can  track 
the  man  as  we  do  some  star  that  rises  and  moves  about  us 
in  an  unclouded  night. 

How  great  and  portentous  were  events  in  the  first  years ! 
Unmerciful  disaster  crowded  on  disaster;  defeat  upon  defeat;  the 
loss  of  Sumter;  the  first  Bull  Run;  Virginia  a  slaughter  pen;  her 
rivers  red  with  blood ;  her  hills  covered  with  unyielding  fortresses ; 
the  flag  of  rebellion  close  and  defiant  over  against  the  very  capitol ; 
the  Mason  and  Sidell  affair  involving  all  but  war  with  Great  Brit 
ain;  France  and  Austria  intriguing  for  a  renewal  of  empire  on  our 
Southern  border;  the  awful  losses  in  the  Chickahominy  swamps; 
the  seven-day  battles;  and  Fredericksburg ;  and  the  campaign 
about  second  Bull  Run ;  a  great  people,  stung  to  frenzy  by  un 
merited  defeat,  dragged  to  the  verge  of  despair  by  losses  they 
could  not  comprehend  and  would  not  forgive ;  withdrawing  the 
full  measure  of  their  confidence  and  threatening  to  transfer 
their  fealty;  doubt  and  disaster  and  gloom  and  storm,  lightened 
only  by  the  steady  roll  of  the  drums  that  went  down  the  Mis 
sissippi  and  in  the  West  far  from  the  capitol  and  the  nation's 
life,  while  about  that  capitol,  aye,  up  to  its  very  gates,  pushed 
the  grey-coated  victors,  led  by  their  triumphant  chiefs! 

And  through  all  these  months  of  agony  the  president,  on 
whose  heart  fell  every  blow,  wrestled  with  fate,  watching,  urg 
ing,  restraining,  cheering!  Over  him  on  guard,  the  long  night 
dragged  on  and  the  gloom  was  deepening.  Not  yet  had  it 
seemed  to  him  that  he  must  give  its  final  color  to  the  war; 
not  yet  draw  from  the  arsenal  the  tremendous  reserve  power 
of  emancipation ;  but  his  resolve  was  made  when  our  broken 
regiments  returned  for  safety  in  the  late  summer  of  1862  to 
the  banks  of  the  Potomac  and  he  determined  that  if  victory 
did  crown  our  arms  again,  he  would  in  its  light  proclaim  liber 
ty  throughout  the  land  and  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof. 


58  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

He  told  the  world  why  on  the  22d  of  August : 

"I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  in  the 
shortest  way  under  the  constitution.  If  there  be  those 
who  would  not  save  the  Union  unless  they  could  at 
the  same  time  save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them. 
If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union  un 
less  at  the  same  time  they  could  destroy  slavery,  I 
do  not  agree  with  them.  My  paramount  object  in  this 
struggle  is  to  save  the  Union  and  is  not  to  either  de 
stroy  or  save  slavery.  If  I  could  save  the  Union  with 
out  freeing  any  slave  I  would  do  it,  and  if  I  could  save 
the  Union  by  freeing  all  the  slaves  I  would  do  it ;  and 
if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others 
alone.  I  would  also  do  that." 

On  the  18th  of  September  was  won  the  battle  of  Antietam 
and  four  days  thereafter  came  the  preliminary  proclamation 
with  its  hundred  days'  notice  and  then  on  the  New  Year  of 
1863  the  grave  and  majestic  act  by  which  liberty  was  restored 
to  four  million  people  and  their  children  yet  unborn.  Study 
it  well,  oh,  children  of  the  oppressed !  Oh,  children  of  the  free 
—oh,  all  ye  that  love  mankind!  For  greater  words  were  never 
breathed  by  man  into  the  trumpet  of  immortality. 

"Now,  therefore,  I,  Abraham  Lincoln,  president  of 
the  United  States,  by  virtue  of  the  power  in  me  vested 
as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the 
United  States,  in  time  of  actual  armed  rebellion 
against  the  authority  and  government  of  the  United 
States  and  as  a  fit  and  necessary  war  measure  for 
suppressing  said  rebellion,  'proclaim  freedom.' 

And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act 
of  justice,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of  man 
kind  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

No  doubt  he  felt  the  individual  sublimity  of  his  act  and  yet 
he  performed  it  only  as  a  part  of  the  struggle  to  keep  and 
preserve  the  Union.  Public  sentiment  would  not  have  toler 
ated  its  earlier  enforcement;  the  attempts  in  this  line  made 
previously  by  Hunter  and  by  Fremont  had  failed  of  popular 
support ;  now  was  the  appointed  hour,  waited  for  by  the  bonds 
men  through  all  the  ages,  now  the  boon  to  the  slave  was  the 
victory  to  the  free;  now  the  clash  of  falling  chains  was  echo 
to  the  musketry's  sharp  roll;  now  the  armies  of  the  Lord 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  59 

broke  their  reserve  and  moved  with  the  nation's  blue  batallions; 
now  those  blue  batallions  sang  with  fervid  voices  the  battle 
hymn  of  the  republic;  now  the  sunshine  of  justice  lit  the  flag 
of  the  free.  Up  to  this  hour  the  burning  heart  had  yielded 
to  the  cool  brain,  but  when  the  time  did  come,  how  wondrous 
must  have  been  the  thoughts  of  this  mortal — patient,  regard 
ful,  wise,  who  cast  the  thunderbolt  prepared  through  ages  of 
wrong  into  the  field  of  war — and  as  its  vast  explosion  cast 
down  the  defenses  of  slavery,  what  must  have  been  the  triumph 
and  the  agony  mingling  in  his  breast! 

He  had  labored  with  his  hands  for  his  livelihood;  toil  was 
his  early  need  and  he  knew  those  who  ate  bread  in  the  sweat 
of  their  brow,  for  he  was  labor's  child  and  product;  in  his 
individuality  was  the  personification  of  labor;  labor  all  around 
the  world  was  watching  the  outcome  of  the  war  which  had 
become  his  own  cause ;  it  was  labor  which  in  Europe  so  sym 
pathized  with  the  loyal  cause  that  it  held  in  check  all  demon 
strations  of  aristocratic  accord  with  rebellion.  Labor  knew 
that  Lincoln  was  its  greatest  champion  and  he  knew  that  the 
eyes  of  the  poor  were  on  him  everywhere. 

And  thus  he  who  when  a  flat-boat  man  had  with  horror  seen 
a  slave  auction  in  New  Orleans,  who  had  seen  the  efforts  to 
annul  the  ordinance  of  1787,  the  charter  of  liberty  to  the  North 
west  ;  who  had  seen  foreign  strife  add  to  our  domain  enormous 
territory  subject  to.  slavery;  who  had  borne  a  part  in  all  the 
agitations  over  its  extensions  or  its  restrictions  now  in  the 
midst  of  the  great  war  spoke  its  doom  ;  saw  it  perish  by  the 
decree  of  a  fugitive  from  its  blight;  saw  his  own  act  unite  the 
purposes  of  eternal  justice  and  of  the  national  life  and  saw 
this  continent  reserved  for  the  triumphs  of  free  men.  For  such 
surely  is  the  great  result ;  here  by  human  sacrifice  has  been 
made  ready  a  continental  field  wherein  labor  and  law  shall 
attain  in  harmonious  ways  their  highest  development. 

Accursed  let  him  be  who  shall  stand  in  the  way  of  these 
great  purposes  or  who  shall  by  sowing  discord,  prepare  the 
harvest  of  sorrow  for  the  toilers  of  the  world;  or  embroil  the 
children  of  America  in  fatricidal  strife ;  we  are  one  in  heart 
and  destiny;  one  in  interest  and  purpose;  diverse  in  our  duties 
and  opportunities,  but  one  in  the  glory  of  peace. 

From  the  proclamation  until  the  end,  reached  as  that  end 
was  in  spite  of  great  and  devoted  opposition,  presented  by 
gallant  foes,  striving  as  they  believed  for  their  most  dear 


60  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

country  and  their  sacred  rights ;  although  the  mountains  were 
filled  with  passes  sturdily  defended  as  was  Thermopylae,  and 
a  score  of  plains  were  like  that  of  Marathon,  yet  despite  all 
misguided  valor,  devotion  and  sacrifice,  unto  the  end  the  Un 
ion  cause  moved  resistlessly,  checked  here,  retarded  there,  it 
moved  on,  on,  on,  and  at  the  last  vindicated  anew  the  eternal 
law  that  good  flourishes  even  out  of  evil  and  will  in  the  end 
prevail. 

I  am  not  here  to  show  how  on  land  and  sea,  for  four  years, 
a  gallant  foe  withstood  our  progress  in  more  than  two  thou 
sand  five  hundred  contests  and  battles;  how  never  by  day  or 
by  night  did  the  guns  cease  their  thunder  or  the  vast  armies 
rest.  I  will  not  dwell  on  the  mutual  American  virtues  of  brav 
ery  and  devotion;  but  through  it  all  the  president  seemed  the 
animating  presence;  he  restrained  rash  adventure;  he  cheered 
despondent  defeat;  he  urged  the  laggard;  he  praised  the 
worthy;  he  honored  the  victorious  brave;  he  wept  for  the  be 
loved  dead;  he  sympathized  with  the  mourning  millions,  and 
while  so  doing  his  duty  as  man  and  citizen,  he  planned  great 
campaigns,  criticised  failures,  rewarded  success,  punished 
cruelty  and  with  merciful  hand  struck  strong  blows  when  need 
ed;  he  was  commander  and  at  the  same  time  chieftain;  his 
loving  sallies  of  wit  routed  dull  care  and  brought  a  smile  to 
the  nation's  face ;  his  speech  made  the  ranks  stand  fast  or 
move  to  the  front ;  his  sayings  were  told  in  every  home  and 
by  every  camp  fire ;  and  in  them  all  not  a  bitter  word,  not  a 
word  of  hatred  for  the  foemen  fell  from  his  lips  or  pen.  I 
know  there  is  present  in  your  memories  that  classic  of  classics, 
the  speech  at  Gettysburg,  and  I  read  it  to  you  now : 

"Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers 
brought  forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  con 
ceived  in  liberty  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that 
all  men  are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a 
civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation 
so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long  edure.  We 
are  met  on  a  great  battlefield  of  that  war.  We  have 
come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final  rest 
ing  place  for  those  who  give  their  lives  that  that  na 
tion  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper 
that  we  should  do  this. 

"But  in  a  larger  sense  we  cannot  dedicate,  we  can 
not  consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow  this  ground.  The 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  61 

brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who  struggled  here  have 
consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or 
detract.  The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remem 
ber,  what  we  say  here;  but  it  can  never  forget  what 
they  did  here.  It  is  for  us  the  living,  rather,  to  be 
dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who 
fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is 
rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task 
remaining  before  us;  that  from  these  honored  dead 
we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which 
they  gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we 
here  highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have 
died  in  vain;  that  this  nation  under  God  shall  have 
a  new  birth  of  freedom,  and  that  government  of  the 
people,  by  the  people  and  for  the  people  shall  not  per 
ish  from  the  earth." 

Did  mortal  man  ever  more  truly  tell  the  sentiment  of  a 
great  people,  or  pay  a  more  majestic  tribute  to  the  dead? 
This  was  the  frontiersman's,  the  rustic  laborer's  appeal  to  im 
mortal  history.  This  commander  was  telling  the  sentiments 
of  the  army.  This  president  was  voicing  the  iron  purpose  of 
the  nation.  This  orator  was  speaking  all  the  hope  and  love 
and  desire  of  the  present  to  the  unborn  millions  yet  to  be. 

From  the  speech  at  Gettysburg,  delivered  at  the  culmina 
tion  of  rebellious  effort,  until  April,  1865,  there  was  the  un 
controllable  decline  and  fall  of  the  Confederacy,  whose  end 
was  reached  at  Appomattox,  when  the  Union,  triumphant  over 
every  obstacle,  burst  resplendent  from  the  clouds  of  strife,  to 
move,  let  us  hope,  forever,  undimmed  on  that  highway  where 
glory  waits  on  honor  and  has  due  regard  for  the  rights  of  men. 

Many  swift  years  have  gone  since  the  last  note  of  war 
died  away;  the  vast  edifices  of  peace  are  builded  where  the 
fortresses  frowned ;  the  railroads  stretch  where  the  armies 
marched  and  their  whistles  waken  the  echoes  that  once  an 
swered  the  call  of  the  bugle.  A  peaceful  era  usurps  and  ob 
literates  all  traces  of  destruction;  even  the  stubborn  hearts 
of  men  acknowledge  the  wisdom  that  brought  the  great  cause 
to  success  and  children  cry  out,  "This  is  history!  Close  the 
volume  traced  by  the  sword  and  open  that  new  one,  where 
in  the  pen  of  love  shall  tell  the  greater  glory  of  our  beloved 
land."  So  mote  it  be!  For  this  we  fought,  and  this  being 


62  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

done,  arms  and  the  flags  of  war  rust  and  drop  their  silken 
tatters  on  the  grave  of  every  passion. 

From  this  high  point  we,  all  the  American  people,  may 
look  back  without  bitterness  to  the  day  and  the  place  when 
the  great  president  fell,  his  work  done,  his  course  complete, 
the  last  and  greatest  victim  of  strife. 

The  end  was  reached  of  strife !  Insane  malice,  choosing 
the  most  illustrious  victim,  plunged  the  whole  land,  North 
and  South,  in  sorrow  and  deep  horror. 

What  a  horrible  dream  that  I4th  of  April  seemed!  Peace 
had  come — the  battle  banners  were  furled;  the  lines  of  hostile 
camps  were  broken,  and  blue  and  gray,  stern  survivors  of  the 
tempestuous  days,  were  forgetting  and  forgiving;  foemen  were 
tracing  anew  the  familiar  lineaments  of  each  other's  war 
worn  face  to  find  in  them  brothers'  looks.  The  flag  was  spread 
abroad  in  joyous  splendor  over  the  whole  American  land,  un 
challenged,  unchanged,  triumphant.  The  hearts  of  the  great 
hosts  of  the  Union  were  yearning  for  the  gay,  glad  time  of 
rest  at  home,  and  in  the  hour  of  success,  amid  their  rejoicing 
and  civic  pomp,  amid  the  roar  of  guns  celebrating  victory,  the 
whole  people  echoed  and  re-echoed  the  last  words  Abraham 
Lincoln  ever  spoke  to  that  whole  people : 

"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in;  to  bind  up 
the  nation's  wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have 
borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan, 
and  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  a  just  and  lasting 
peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

And  while  these  high,  tender,  immortal  words  still  were 
being  wafted  about  the  globe  and  to  every  shore,  after  them 
sped  the  news  of  the  death  of  their  most  consummate  author, 
dead  in  the  hour  of  highest  fortune;  dead  while  his  heart 
glowed  for  the  returning  children  of  the  Union ;  dead  with 
out  bitterness ;  dead  while  still  his  busy  thoughts  were  run 
ning  on  from  the  passing  shadows  to  the  sunny  future  where 
in  he  foresaw  the  whole  vast  united  nation  in  concord  and 
content;  dead  by  a  maniac  hand.  Then  fell  the  best  and  wisest 
friend  of  the  South ;  who  can  say  how  her  fortunes  would  have 
been  affected  had  the  mantle  of  his  great  authority  been  spread 
above  her  stricken  form? 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  63 

As  his  towering  frame  fell,  all  the  people  North  and  South, 
all  the  world,  caught  and  lifted  him  on  high;  laid  him  to  rest 
with  the  unforgetable  few  whose  names  are  dear  in  all  lands 
and  all  times;  clothed  him  with  the  panoplying  robes  of  utmost 
pure  renown  and  kindled  at  his  mighty  pyre  the  torch  that 
liberty  arrd  civilization  ever  bear  onward  in  their  ceaseless 
progress. 

"Oh  Captain,  my  Captain,  our  fearful  trip  is  done, 
The  ship  has  weathered  every  rack,  the  prize  we  sought 

is  won, 

The  port  is  near,  the  bells  I  hear,  the  people  all  exulting 
While  follow  eyes  the  steady  keel  the  vessel  grim  and 
daring, 

But,  oh,  heart!  heart!  heart! 
Oh,  the  bleeding  drops  of  red, 
Where  on  the  deck  my  Captain  lies, 
Fallen,  cold  and  dead." 

For  him  then  to  die  was  gain;  it  would  have  been  nothing 
to  have  lived  on  a  few  brief  years  of  toil  and  fierce  contention, 
nothing,  that  pleasant  days  might  have  crowned  his  age ;  noth 
ing,  that  gentle  hours  might  have  garlanded  his  brow.  That 
for  which  he  lived  was  established.  The  Union  was  saved  and 
every  man  was  free. 

He  only  preceded  the  vast  hosts  that  he  had  summoned 
to  battle  from  all  of  freedom's  domain;  at  their  head  he  entered 
the  sunny  plains  of  rest  and  glory.  Fancy  has  placed  him 
there  in  their  midst.  "On  the  other  side  of  the  river  amongst 
the  trees."  A  name  that  human  weakness  might  have  tar 
nished  is  safe  and  bright. 

On  this  side,  we  who  remain,  and  those  that  shall  fol 
low  us,  when  weary  with  petty  striving  or  beset  with  doubt, 
may  raise  eyes,  from  temporary  glooms  and  mists,  and  shall 
see,  on  the  receding  horizon  of  that  great  time,  uplifted  on 
the  splendid  mountain  tops  of  our  history,  in  its  middle  morn 
ing,  the  grave,  heroic,  loving  figure  of  him  who  was  the  saver 
of  the  Union  and  emancipator.  While  all  about  him,  as  he 
stands  near  to  the  father  of  the  country,  the  clamorous  ages 
in  their  eternal  march  shall  say: 

"This  man  was  Liberty's  martyr ! 
This  man  was  Humanity's  Friend!" 


64:  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY   JOHN   IRELAND,    ROMAN    CATHOLIC    ARCHBISHOP,    ST.    PAUL. 
(Read  February  12,  1897.) 


It  is  well  for  a  country  to  have  its  heroes.  Their  memories 
raise  us  up  higher  ideals  and  spur  us  on  to  deeds  of  valor. 
Fortunate  is  the  nation  whose  heroes  are  Washington  and 
Lincoln.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  even  mention  their  names 
without  being  impelled  to  better  things.  Abraham  Lincoln, 
today  thy  name  has  been  spoken  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  and  because  of  the  sweet  influence  that  has  gone  out 
from  thy  memory  the  republic  feels  stronger  and  more  hope 
ful.  Thy  name  symbolizes  patriotism,  generous,  sublime,  dis 
interested. 

Abraham  Lincoln  lived  for  his  country,  and  no  obstacle 
was  allowed  to  interfere  with  his  great  work.  He  sacrificed 
everything,  even  his  very  life,  and  it  is  this  high,  disinterested, 
sublime  patriotism  that  we  must  learn  if  we  would  fitly  com 
memorate  his  memory.  There  is  need  today  as  there  was 
thirty-six  years  ago  of  the  patriotism  of  Lincoln.  We  often 
ask  ourselves,  Is  this  republic  of  the  people  for  the  people,  by 
the  people,  this  personification  of  democracy — is  this  republic 
to  live?  The  very  fact  that  we  love  the  republic  so  deeply 
causes  us,  sometimes  almost  in  timidity,  to  put  this  question 
to  ourselves.  We  know  the  perils  that  always  surround  de 
mocracy,  especially  when  we  shall  soon  come  to  a  popula 
tion  to  be  numbered  by  a  hundred  million.  Democracy  is  sur 
rounded  by  many  difficulties  because,  to  its  peril,  it  is  a  gov 
ernment  by  the  many,  and  in  order  that  the  country  may  be 
governed  well  it  is  necessary  that  the  many  be  ready  to  make 
sacrifices,  to  imitate  Lincoln,  to  be  sublimely  patriotic.  As 
the  nation  advances  through  the  years  the  perils  increase. 
Let  us  not  try  to  disguise  the  fact  as  we  increase  in  popula 
tion,  as  wealth  increases,  as  we  witness  the  economic  revo 
lutions,  results  of  the  great  inventions,  discoveries  of  this 
age.  What  is  it  that  enables  us  to  rise  superior  to  all  these, 
perils?  What  will  bring  us  to  the  point  when  we  can  bid  all 
passions  be  silent,  when  we  can  sacrifice  our  very  lives? 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL,   ADDRESSES.  65 

Patriotism !  When  we  can  say  our  country,  first  and  last. 
America  is  safe. 

It  is  well  to  recall  the  deeds  of  heroes.  It  is  well  to  look 
often  at  the  flag  and  remember  that  it  signifies  liberty  for  the 
nation,  liberty  for  the  world.  In  seeking  the  best  for  our 
country,  opinions  will  always  be  divided.  There  will  always 
be  political  parties.  But  all  is  well  if,  whenever  the  country 
calls  we  are  able  to  put  aside  party  for  country.  I  say  culti 
vate  patriotism,  and  hence  I  salute  those  grand  organizations, 
the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  and  the  Loyal  Legion.  They 
are  schools  of  patriotism.  It  is  the  nature  of  men's  souls  to 
love  dearly  the  things  for  which  sacrifices  have  been  made. 
Companions,  it  is  difficult  for  others  to  feel  the  warm  love 
that  we  feel  for  the  flag,  because  we  have  followed  it  over  gory 
fields  and  its  battles  have  been  purchased  with  the  offering 
of  our  heart's  blood. 

War  is  dreadful  and  no  one  knows  it  better  than  the  old 
soldiers,  but  one  of  the  results  of  war  is  to  stimulate  patriot 
ism.  I  do  not  say — understand  me  well — that  we  must  desire 
war  for  the  sake  of  the  patriotism  it  begets.  Yet  when  war 
has  come  let  us  acknowledge  that  it  is  a  fertile  fountain  of 
purest  and  most  generous  patriotism.  History  will  proclaim 
that  one  of  the  greatest  results  of  the  civil  war  is  that  we 
have  since  been  a  united  people. 

It  has  said  that  arbitration  has  come.  God  grant  it,  for 
it  opens  the  way  to  the  settlement  of  all  difficulties  by  simple 
justice,  without  justice  having  to  call  upon  force.  Let  us 
hope  that  the  dream  may  become  reality.  But  terrible  as 
war  is,  there  are  other  things  more  terrible — loss  of  the  integrity 
of  the  nation,  of  the  national  honor.  If  arbitration  can  elimin 
ate  all  these  evils,  be  it  so.  But  rather  than  that  the  nation 
shall  suffer  in  her  least  particular  in  its  life  or  in  its  honor, 
rather  than  that  men  should  live  unworthy  of  their  country, 
let  war  come. 

I  salute  the  attempt  at  arbitration.  It  will  be  a  lesson  to 
all  nations.  It  will  help  Europe  put  down  that  terrible  mili 
tarism  which  keeps  millions  in  camp  or  fortress.  But  with 
all  my  love  of  arbitration,  I  love  my  country  best,  and  if 
through  this  treaty  we  expose  to  the  slightest  peril  that  policy 
of  the  nation  by  which  the  United  States  claims  the  continent 
of  America  for  Americans  and  American  principles  and  Amer 
ican  liberty,  if  the  Monroe  doctrine  is  exposed  to  the  least  dan- 


66  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

ger,  let  us  have  no  treaty.  I  am  glad  the  senate  has  paused 
and  has  asked  before  approving  the  treaty,  "Is  the  Monroe 
doctrine  safe?"  Let  arbitration  come  with  due  respect  for 
America,  but  we  cannot  submit  to  arbitration  things  which 
cannot  be  left  to  a  few  men,  even  if  some  of  them  be  Amer 
icans.  There  are  certain  great  policies  which  can  be  settled 
only  by  the  nation  itself. 

While  I  hope  for  arbitration,  we  must  not  go  so  far  as  not 
always  to  be  in  sufficient  readiness  for  war.  Humanity  is  im 
perfect  on  many  sides.  In  the  name  of  the  American  people 
and  American  liberty  the  army  and  the  navy  must  be  sustained 
and  increased.  As  we  grow  into  a  great  nation  and  assume 
to  a  higher  position  than  any  nation  of  the  earth  there  will  be 
perils  which  no  arbitration  can  settle  and  which  will  endanger 
us  if  we  are  not  prepared. 

Old  flag,  to  thee  I  pledge  the  tribute  of  my  gratitude  and 
love !  May  it  wave  over  America's  happy  homes.  Wave  in 
peace,  if  it  be  the  will  of  God,  but  if  bloodshed  come,  old  flag, 
shelter  thou  us ! 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  67 


ADDRESS. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL    EDWARD    S.    BRAGG,    U.    S.    VOLS. 
(Read  February  12,   1898.) 


It  is  most  meet  and  fitting  for  this  order,  as  a  repre 
sentative  of  the  brain  and  brawn  of  the  people,  on  whose 
shoulder  the  Union  rests,  and  who  went  down  to  the  jaws 
of  a  very  hell  to  proclaim  to  the  world  that  the  American 
republic  was  not  a  failure,  that  in  peace  and  in  war  there  would 
always  spring  forward  in  defense  of  her  honor,  her  integrity 
and  the  flag  of  an  undivided  nation  patriotic  sons,  from  the 
hovel  and  the  palace,  from  the  city  and  the  hamlet,  from  her 
valleys  and  mountain  sides,  singing  as  they  did  before,  when 
they  went  to  death,  to  prison  and  to  fetid  hospital : 

"We're  coming,  Father  Abraham,  three  hundred  thousand 
more!" 

It  is  not  only  the  birthday  of  Abraham  Lincoln  that  we 
commemorate,  but  it  is  to  us  the  birth  of  the  great  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of  the  United  States,  whose 
children  we  were  during  the  dark  days  from  '61  to  '65,  bearing 
arms  for  the  integrity  of  the  Union,  and  ultimately  wiping 
from  the  flag  of  a  free  people  the  foul  stain  of  human  slavery, 
protected  and  conserved  by  constitutional  law. 

There  is  another  propriety  in  this  place  of  commemora 
tion  peculiarly  applicable.  We  are  dwellers  in  and  children 
of  the  West.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  child  of  the  West,  a  boy  of 
the  West,  a  man  of  the  W^est,  a  type  of  character  too  fast 
fading  from  view  before  the  pushing  advance  of  a  class  whose 
god  is  in  their  bank  account,  and  whose  polished  address  and 
manner  of  speech  is  too  often  acquired  at  the  expense  of  the 
sacrifice  of  the  hickory,  rough  though  it  might  be,  which  was 
the  "sine  qua  non"  at  the  base  of  the  character  of  men  like  Lin 
coln,  and  the  early  pioneer  of  his  type.  They  will  stand  in  Amer 
ican  history  as  representatives  of  God's  manhood,  not  needing  the 
conventional  polish  of  society,  or  the  agnosticism  bred  from  too 
much  school,  to  mark  them  as  men  worthy  of  the  trust  and  confi 
dence  of  a  people  deserving  to  be  free. 


68  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

Hero  worship  stands  out  as  a  prominent  attribute  in  Amer 
ican  character,  and  next,  in  close  proximity  to  it,  on  the  chart 
of  delineation  of  our  character,  is  a  marked  tendency  to  Athen 
ian  fickleness — bays  and  laurels  for  today,  cups  of  poison  hem 
lock  for  the  morrow. 

Mr.  Lincoln  died  when  his  glory  was  in  apogee — when 
every  loyal  American  and  every  lover  of  manhood  and  free 
dom,  wherever  God's  sunlight  shed  its  rays,  in  sorrow  and 
mourning  bowed  its  head  in  reverence,  almost  in  worship,  as 
the  body  was  given  back  to  its  mother  earth,  and  the  spirit, 
freed  from  care  and  sorrow,  sped  away  from  its  earthly  tene 
ment  and  nestled  with  the  souls  of  the  just  made  perfect  in 
the  bosom  of  its  God. 

Do  not  shudder  at  my  words!  I  but  use  the  language  of 
one  of  the  dead  martyr's  bosom  friends  and  admirers,  in  the 
Philadelphia  Times,  as  expressing  the  idea  I  have  endeavored 
to  give  you — "Mr.  Lincoln  was  fortunate  in  the  opportunity 
of  his  death."  He  escaped  the  politicians'  intrigue  and  filthy 
smirch,  that  made  the  name  of  his  successor  and  fellow-worker 
"a  hissing  and  a  byword"  upon  the  tongues  of  the  populace 
harped  on  by  a  partisan  press,  inflamed  to  advance  the  ends 
of  an  unscrupulous  cabal. 

The  story  of  his  life,  his  education,  his  character,  his  virtues, 
his  peculiarities,  and  his  great  big  tender  heart,  overflowing 
with  kindness,  without  stint,  making  at  times  all  other  marked 
attributes  of  his  character  bend  gently  before  its  outflow,  to 
evidence  his  love  for  all,  and  a  humanity  worthy  of  a  god, 
is  an  oft  told  tale.  His  hopes,  purpose  and  rule  of  action  as 
chief  magistrate,  resulting  from  war  as  a  necessity  for  pre 
servation  of  the  Union,  are  best  preserved  in  his  own  simple 
language  in  his  second  inaugural  address: 

"Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that 
this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speedily  pass  away. 
Yet  if  God  wills  that  it  shall  continue  until  all  the 
wealth  piled  by  the  bondsman's  250  years  of  unre- 
quitted  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood 
drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid,  by  -another  drawn 
by  the  sword,  as  was  said  3,000  years  ago,  so  still  it 
must  be  said,  'The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether.' ' 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  69 

And  then,  giving  utterance  to  sentiments  bubbling  up  from 
a  different  fountain  of  feeling  in  the  heart,  he  proceeds : 

"With  malice  towards  none,  with  charity  for  all, 
with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in ;  to 
bind  up  the  nation's  wounds ;  to  care  for  him  who  shall 
have  borne  the  battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  orphans; 
to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and 
lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all.  nations." 

In  the  volumes  of  adulation  of  Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  early 
years  following  his  murder,  there  seems  many  times  more  ful 
some  gush  than  the  plain  truthful  talk  he  himself  always  used 
and  delighted  to  listen  to,  and  upon  no  subject  did  this  mani 
fest  itself  more  than  in  his  attitude  towards  slavery. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  never  a  slave-holder.  Nor  was  he  an 
Abolitionist,  until  the  time  came  when  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  depended  upon  it.  The  emancipation  proclamation  that 
struck  the  shackles  from  the  bondman,  had  not  for  its  motive 
cause  the  wrongs  and  the  sufferings  of  the  slave ;  that  good 
was  an  incident,  nothing  more !  It  was  a  necessity,  as  it 
seemed  to  him,  to  prevent  foreign  interference  and  largely  in 
creased  the  safety  of  the  Union. 

The  light,  of  the  times  when  events  happened,  is  the  only 
light  that  shows  the  right  rule  in  which  to  consider  them.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  Rebellion  there  were  few  of  either  sex 
in  the  United  States  who  believed,  to  use  the  language  of  a 
great  orator  and  philanthropist  of  Massachusetts,  that  the  con 
stitutional  recognition  of  the  right  of  property  of  man  in  man 
"was  a  league  with  the  devil  and  a  covenant  with  hell." 

It  may  surprise  some  to  know  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not 
an  Abolitionist,  nor  was  he  a  believer  in  the  divine  right  of 
slave-holders.  He  believed  with  the  great  majority — "That 
within  states  wrhere  it  existed  it  was  protected  by  the  broad 
shield  of  the  constitution,  and  without  violation  of  organic 
law,  it,  though  an  evil,  could  not  be  reached  but  by  the  con 
sent  of  those  whose  property  would  be  affected  by  its  aboli 
tion." 

He  states  his  position  and  that  of  his  party,  in  his  first 
inaugural  address,  in  these  explicit  words: 

"I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  in 
terfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  states 


YO  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to  do 
so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so.  Those  who 
nominated  me  and  elected  me  did  so  with  the  full 
knowledge  that  I  had  made  this,  and  made  many  simi 
lar  declarations  and  have  never  recanted  them;  and 
more  than  this,  they  placed  in  the  platform  for  my 
acceptance,  and  as  a  law  to  themselves  and  to  me,  the 
clear  and  emphatic  resolution,  which  I  now  read: 

"  'Resolved,  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the 
rights  of  the  states,  and  especially  the  right  of  each 
state,  to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institu 
tions  according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is 
essential  to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  per 
fection  and  endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depends; 
and  we  denounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  forces 
of  any  state  or  territory,  no  matter  under  what  pre 
text,  as  among  the  greatest  of  crimes.' ' 

Having  thus  announced  the  faith  and  purpose  of  himself 
and  his  party,  he  boldly  and  clearly  declares: 

"If  the  United  States  be  not  a  government  proper, 
but  an  association  of  states,  in  the  nature  of  a  contract 
merely,  can  it  as  a  contract  peaceably  be  unmade  by 
less  than  all  the  parties  who  made  it?  *  *  *  In 
legal  contemplation  the  Union  is  perpetual,  confirmed 
by  the  history  of  the  Union  itself." 

The  single  purpose  of  this  bold  brave  man  was  to  save  the 
Union  he  loved,  and  for  which  he  gave  his  life.  In  his  letter 
of  August  22,  1862,  to  his  friend  Horace  Greeley,  who  at  one 
time  spoke  of  the  rebel  states  in  the  kindness  of  his  heart, 
following  the  dictates  of  an  impracticable  philanthropy,  as 
"erring  sisters,"  and  added,  "depart  in  peace,"  he  says: 

"My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union,  and 
not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery.  *  *  *  What 
I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race  I  do  because 
I  believe  it  helps  to  save  this  Union;  and  what  I  for 
bear  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it  would  help 
to  save  the  Union." 

When  the  time  came,  when  this  silent,  thoughtful,  con 
servative  man  reached  in  his  own  mind  the  conclusion  that  the 
day  for  the  harvest  was  nigh,  that  the  life  of  the  Union  de- 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  71 

pended  upon  the  execution  of  the  moral  law  against  human 
bondage,  he  shrank  not  from  his  duty,  as  current  events  marked 
out  that  duty  on  clearly  unmistakable  lines.  He  sounded  the 
note  of  warning  on  September  22,  1862,  to  the  inhabitants  of 
the  states  in  rebellion,  by  a  proclamation  tendering  the  olive 
branch  in  one  hand  for  their  acceptance,  with  the  preserva 
tion  of  their  property,  upon  their  resuming  again  their  posi 
tion  in  the  Union  before  the  first  day  of  January,  1863,  or  in 
default  thereof  on  that  day  the  proclamation  of  freedom  to 
the  slaves  would  be  made.  Vainglorious  in  their  pride,  devil 
ish  in  the  purpose  of  their  leaders,  supported  by  the  ignorance 
of  the  masses,  the  inevitable  result  of  the  slave  system,  they 
scoffed  and  railed  at  the  warning  of  their  friend,  many  wonder 
ing  in  the  density  of  their  ignorance  whether  the  Yankee 
president  was  even  a  white  man !  The  emancipation  proclama 
tion  came,  and  war  without  gloves  followed;  blow  after  blow 
in  quick  succession  was  given.  They  fought  as  men  of  our 
own  blood  only  can  fight;  sometimes  victory  upon  one  side 
and  then  again  upon  the  other,  but  the  sturdy  Northmen, 
children  of  free  men,  faltered  not! 

"We  are  coming,  Father  Abraham,  six  hundred  thousand  more," 
was  the  cry  and  at  last  victory  perched  upon  the  eagles  of 
the  Republic  and  depopulated  country,  with  villages  laid  waste, 
blackened  chimneys  standing  to  mark  where  the  besom  of 
war  had  swept,  desolate  homes,  cries  of  the  widows  and  the 
fatherless,  and  thousands  of  hillocks  showing  the  resting  places 
of  their  dead,  were  all  that  was  left  to  represent  the  great  govern 
ment  with  slavery  for  its  chief  corner  stone,  that  was  to  have  been. 

"Old  Abe !  God  bless  him,"  was  the  ejaculation  that  went 
from  mouth  to  mouth  of  every  lover  of  the  Union !  But,  lo — 
there  came  as  a  thunder  clap  in  a  clear  sky  the  news  of  the 
assassination  of  the  president,  and  the  heavens  were  hung  with 
black,  and  the  voice  of  mourning  filled  the  land !  The  murder 
er  was  not  a  Southerner,  but  was  imbued  with  their  ideas 
and  convictions,  and  fired  the  fatal  shot  that  sent  to  his  grave 
the  man  the  people  of  the  North  were  fast  learning  to  call 
"the  second  Washington."  not  the  "father  of"  but  the  "savior 
of"  his  country,  shouting  as  he  did  so,  in  his  devilish  frenzy, 
"Sic  semper  tyrannis !" 

It  was  the  last  blow  of  slavery,  but  it  struck  a  shining 
mark. 


72  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

The  character  of  Mr.  Lincoln  without  the  embellishments 
of  word  painting,  should  be  the  study  of  every  young  Amer 
ican.  He  had  no  advantages,  so  called,  to  equip  him  for  his 
battle  of  life.  His  capital  was  honesty,  integrity,  truthfulness, 
and  continuity  of  purpose,  to  do  well  what  was  given  him  to 
do,  and  with  a  firm  trust  in  God  that  justice,  right  and  well 
doing  would  sooner  or  later  meet  their  reward.  He  recognized 
from  earliest  boyhood  the  dignity  of  honest  labor.  His  op 
portunities  for  mental  culture  were  few,  but  what  they  were 
he  seized  with  avidity. 

When  asked  for  incidents  of  his  early  life,  he  replied :  "You 
can  find  the  whole  of  my  early  life  in  a  single  line  of  Gray's 
'Elegy';  'The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor.'  ' 

Poverty  has  its  advantages  as  well  as  its  drawbacks  to 
an  education.  Success  is  not  always  to  him  who  reads  most, 
but  more  usually  awaits  him  who  reads  well.  As  a  good  ap 
petite  not  clogged  by  over-indulgence  in  sweets  takes  with 
zest  and  assimilates  strong,  hearty  food,  so  does  a  vigorous 
intellect,  not  surfeited  with  variety,  absorb  and  adopt  what  is 
given  for  mental  food ;  not  blunted  in  its  taste,  not  overfed, 
it  drinks  up  what  it  finds  to  feed  upon  and  makes  it  its  own. 

The  Bible,  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  and  "Aesop's  Fables"  were 
Lincoln's  early  text  books — and  the  impress  they  made  upon 
his  method  and  lines  of  thought,  are  perceptible  in  his  early 
conversation — with  Shakespeare  added,  which  he  dearly  loved  to 
read,  and,  later,  the  life  of  Washington.  These  made  his  library 
for  literary  culture  in  his  early  life.  He  read  not  so  much,  but  he 
read  it  well. 

His  quaint  sayings  and  anecdotes,  to  teach  a  moral  or  to  point 
an  argument,  are  cropping  out  of  his  Aesop.  He  stood  not  upon 
words  for  style  of  expression ;  his  thought  always  seemed  to  be  not 
to  talk  over  the  heads  of  his  hearers,  but  to  use  language  they 
could  readily  understand. 

In  his  message  to  congress  at  the  extra  session  in  1861, 
he  used  the  expression,  in  speaking  of  the  methods  used  , to 
cover  up  the  real  purpose  of  the  secession  leaders,  "With  re 
bellion  thus  sugar-coated,"  and  was  appealed  to  to  change  the 
phrase,  as  undignified.  He  declined,  saying  that  "word  sugar- 
coated  expresses  my  idea,  and  I  am  not  going  to  change  it." 
The  time  will  never  come  in  this  country  when  the  people  won't 
know  exactly  what  "sugar-coated"  means. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  73 

Bancroft,  the  historian,  writing  of  his  fitness  for  his  office 
and  his  qualities  for  leadership  at  the  time  the  executive  man 
tle  fell  upon  him,  said : 

"He  was  one  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  the  class 
that  lives  and  thrives  by  self-imposed  labor,  felt  that 
the  work  that  was  to  be  done  was  a  work  of  their  own 
—the  assertion  of  equality  against  the  pride  of  oli 
garchy;  of  free  labor  against  the  lordship  over  slaves; 
of  the  great  industrial  people  against  all  the  expiring 
aristocracies  of  which  any  remnant  had  tided  down 
from  the  middle  ages. 

"He  was  of  a  religious  turn  of  mind,  without  super 
stition  ;  and  the  unbroken  faith  of  the  mass  was  like 
his  own.  As  he  \vent  along  through  his  difficult  jour 
ney,  sounding  his  way,  he  held  fast  by  the  hand  of  the 
people,  and  tracked  his  footsteps  with  even  feet,  his 
pulse's  beat,  twined  with  their  pulse." 

He  was,  indeed,  a  leader  of  men,  a  great  tribune  of  the  peo 
ple,  to  whom  they  gave  their  trust  with  their  hearts.  There 
was  with  him  none  of  the  arts  and  clap-trap  of  the  demagogue 
to  catch  the  ear,  or  the  false  lights  held  out  to  lure  the  un 
wary  to  ruin,  which  so  mark  our  present  decade.  His  words 
and  teachings  were  of  honest,  sterling  worth,  and  not  highly 
polished  brass,  whose  only  value  is  the  glitter  of  its  worthless- 
ness. 

He  was  a  man  of  peace  and  hated  war,  and  yet  there  fell 
upon  him  the  responsibility  of  the  greatest,  cruelest  war  known 
in  modern  history.  How  his  great  heart  bled !  What  prayers, 
with  sobs,  went  up  to  his  Great  Master  from  his  private  ora 
tory,  "that  the  cup  might  pass  from  his  lips,"  are  known  but 
to  the  Master,  "Who  doeth  all  things  well."  He  was  commis 
sioned,  as  it  were,  to  break  the  fourth  seal  of  the  apocalypse, 
and  "behold  a  pale  horse;  and  his  name  who  sat  upon  him  was 
Death,  and  Hell  followed  him."  This  man,  so  gentle,  so  peace- 
loving,  bowed  his  head  and  accepted  the  trust,  and  with  a 
stern,  immobile  face,  concealing  the  inward  struggle,  anxiety 
and  suffering,  was  given  also  a  faculty  of  speech  to  thwart  the 
too  inquisitive  mindreader  and  thicken  the  cover  under  which 
real  purpose  and  convictions  were  hid. 

I  do  not  believe  in  his  inspiration.  I  do  not  believe  in  his 
canonization.  He  was  a  man  with  all  the  attributes  that  enter 


74:  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

into  manhood.  He  had  all  the  tastes,  ambition,  longings  and 
passions  of  other  men,  but  he  had  them  under  complete  con 
trol,  so  that  they  might  be  used  for  the  benefit  of  common 
humanity  and  not  alone  for  self-gratification.  He  curtained 
his  thoughts  and  intentions;  not  for  the  purposes  of  deception, 
but  simply  to  guard  against  the  plucking  of  unripe  fruit. 

Emerson  says  of  him : 

"His  broad  good  humor,  running  easily  into  jocular 
talk,  in  which  he  delighted,  was  a  rich  gift  to  this  wise 
man.  It  enabled  him  to  keep  his  secret;  to  meet 
every  kind  of  man,  and  every  rank  of  society;  to  take 
off  the  edge  of  the  severest  decision;  to  mask  his  own 
purpose  and  sound  his  companion,  and  to  catch  with 
true  instinct  the  temper  of  every  company  he  ad 
dressed.  *  *  *  This  faculty  to  a  man  of  severe  la 
bors  in  anxieties  and  exhausting  crises  is  a  natural 
restorative,  good  as  sleep,  and  is  the  protection  of  the 
over-driven  brain  against  rancor  and  insanity." 

He  was  not  over-careful  of  his  dignity,  because  he  felt  that 
his  dignity  would  care  for  itself.  He  waived  ceremony,  and 
cut  every  knot  of  red  tape  and  rule  of  precedent,  when  neces 
sary  to  do  a  good  deed  by  the  most  expeditious  route.  It 
is  said  of  him  that  once  upon  a  great  and  sudden  emer 
gency,  in  the  night  time,  without  any  robe  of  state  save  a 
cotton  nightgown  of  scanty  proportions  drawn  about  his  un 
gainly  form,  he  met  his  counselors  and  discussed  matters 
of  state.  He  could  be  and  was,  when  necessary,  as  stately, 
cold  and  dignified,  with  eyes  dilated  and  flashing,  as  if  the  blue 
blood  of  generations  of  title-bearing  aristocracy  coursed  in  his 
veins.  But  of  a  truth,  "it  was  not  into  ancestors'  graves  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  dug  for  the  clothes  that  were  to  clothe  him 
in  the  garb  of  manhood;  he  studied  the  laws  of  his  Creator  to 
find  the  material,"  and  he  received  the  patent  of  his  nobility 
from  God. 

The  lesson  of  this  life  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  young 
American  is  not  to  grow  despondent  and  faint-hearted  in  your 
struggle  to  reach  eminence  in  life,  because  fortune  does  not 
smile  and  society  frowns  upon  you.  Had  Abraham  Lincoln 
been  despoiled  of  honor  and  power  and  been  introduced  as  the 
honest,  homely  man  he  was,  into  that  society  of  Anglophobists 
"that  seeks  the  tracerv  of  a  ducal  coronet  on  its  escutcheon 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  75 

and  obtains  its  principal  sustenance  from  the  phosphorescent 
light  emanating  from  the  bones  of  long  buried  ancestors,"  he, 
as  well  as  you,  would  have  been  thrust  out  as  an  unwelcome 


guest. 


Mr.  Lincoln  was  racy  and  humorous  in  conversation,  with 
the  habit  of  upsetting  a  pendantry  or  a  sophism  by  an  epigram 
or  an  anecdote.  When  he  was  once  pressed  by  influential 
friends  to  avert  the  storm  of  rebellion  by  concession,  and  it 
was  explained  how  easily  it  could  be  accomplished  by  recon 
ciliation  of  the  dissevered  wings  of  the  Democratic  party,  he 
replied : 

"I  once  knew  a  good,  sound  churchman,  a  member 
of  a  committee  to  build  a  bridge  over  a  dangerous  and 
rapid  river.  Many  architects  had  failed.  At  last  this 
committeeman  said  to  his  associates,  'I  have  a  friend 
who  has  built  several  bridges  and  can  build  this !' 
'Bring  him  in,'  said  they.  'Can  you  build  this  bridge, 
sir?1  was  the  question.  'Yes,  I  can  build  a  bridge  to 
the  infernal  regions,  if  necessary.'  The  pious  commit 
tee  were  horrified  at  his  reply.  But -his  friend  in  de 
fense  of  him  said:  'He  is  so  honest  a  man  and  so 
good  an  architect  that  if  he  states  soberly  and  posi 
tively  that  he  can  build  a  bridge  to  Hades,  I  believe  it 
— but  I  have  my  doubts  about  the  abutment  on  the  in 
fernal  side!'" 

So  Mr.  Lincoln  added: 

"When  politicians  say  they  can  harmonize  the 
northern  and  southern  wings  of  the  Democracy,  why, 
I  believe  them,  but  I  have  my  doubts  about  the  abut 
ment  on  the  Southern  side!" 

That  this  great  man  who  told  stories  and  was  at  times  un 
dignified  in  the  conventional  meaning  of  the  word,  could  in 
his  plain,  terse  style  of  speech,  overshadow  the  ornate  and  stu 
died  sentences  of  the  schools,  you  can  learn  if  you  sit  with  me 
at  Gettysburg,  as  on  Nov.  19,  1863,  when  this  plain,  simple 
man  was  shown  in  contrast  with  the  most  polished  and  fin 
ished  orator  that  the  schools  had  yet  given  to  the  world.  Man 
against  art,  they  stand  side  by  side.  The  oration  of  Everett 
was  a  gem  in  beauty,  and  for  the  moment  its  brilliancy  threw 
the  plain  words  of  the  man  of  the  West  into  a  shadow,  but 


76  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

not  for  time:  The  brilliancy  of  one  was  the  glitter  of  the  icicle 
and  it  melted  away  and  is  forgotten,  while  the  other  is  an 
American  classic,  and  will  live  so  long  as  the  memory  shall 
remain  of  the  heroes  who  fought  on  that  field  and  to  whom, 
living  and  dead,  the  monument  at  Gettysburg  was  that  day 
dedicated.  Mr.  Lincoln  said  : 

""*  *  '*  We  cannot  dedicate,  we  cannot  conse 
crate,  we  cannot  hallow  this  ground.  The  brave  men, 
living  or  dead,  who  struggled  here,  have  consecrated 
it  far  above  our  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world 
will  little  note  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here; 
but  it-  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for 
us,  the  living,  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished 

•  work   that   they  have   thus  far   so   nobly  carried   on ; 

-  *     *     *     that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  in 
creased   devotion  to  the   cause   for  which   they  here 
gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in 
vain ;  that  the  nation  shall,  under  God,  have  a  new 
birth  of  freedom ;  and  that  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  'people,  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from 
the  earth." 

It  is  for  us,  companions,  children  of  the  flag,  to  keep  to  the 
full  extent  of  our  power,  by  word  and  example,  the  sentiment 
of  these  noble  words,  a  living,  ever-existing  faith  and  practice 
among  us  and  the  people,  that  they  be,  "the  pillar  of  fire  by 
night"  to  guide  and  direct  our  loved  union  in  times  of  trouble 
and  danger. 

I  conclude  my  reflections,  already  too  far  extended,  with 
the  sentiment  that  every  loyal  man  can  approve : 
"Abraham  Lincoln,  God  bless  him !" 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  77 


ADDRESS. 

BY   GENERAL   ROBERT   N.   ADAMS,    U.    S.    VOLS. 
(Read  February  12,  1898.) 


We  are  assembled  not  in  obedience  to  a  time-honored  cus- 
tum,  but  in  response  to  the  universal  and  grateful  sentiment 
of  a  patriotic,  loyal  and  liberty-loving  people,  that  we  may  in 
fitting  ceremony  honor  ourselves  and  bless  posterity  by  keep 
ing  alive  or  perpetuating  the  memory  and  deeds  of  him,  who 
under  Providence,  led  the  nation  in  triumph  through  the 
bloody  sea  of  a  gigantic  civil  strife. 

When  the  conflict  was  on,  we  measured  men  by  the  success 
that  attended  them ;  and  in  those  stirring  times,  as  General 
Sherman  once  said,  "men  were  made  and  unmade  in  a  day." 
But  now,  with  calmer  scrutiny,  as  time  slowly  adjusts  the 
focus,  we  are  able  to  study  and  review  the  public  policies  of 
1861-5 ;  to  give  to  the  great  events  of  the  war  their  proper 
shades  and  places  in  history,  and  also  with  precision  to  ana 
lyze  the  characters  of  the  great  leaders  of  that  period  and 
unite  in  the  coronation  of  those  whose  genius,  motives,  sacri 
fices  and  deeds  deserve  immortality.  And  in  so  doing  we  in 
no  degree  detract  from  the  honors  due  to  many  who  served 
and  suffered  and  sacrificed  when  the  great  leaders,  by  the  rec 
ord  of  their  deeds,  and  by  the  luster  of  their  acknowledged  in 
herent  greatness,  are  made  to  stand  transfigured  before  the 
eyes  of  the  people. 

At  rare  intervals,  however,  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
there  have  appeared  here  and  there  colossal  figures,  marked 
and  unique  personalities,  geniuses  of  transcendent  mold  and 
merit,  who  have  easily  stood  first  even  among  the  great  ones 
in  the  ages  to  which  they  respectively  belong.  At  the  head  of 
the  list  of  honor,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  stands  unchallenged 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Hence  it  is,  that  in  the  recent  years  patriotism  and  grati 
tude  have  been  diligent  in  gathering  even  in  minutest  detail  the 
incidents  of  that  wonderful  life  and  in  making  clear  and  mani 
fest  and  familiar  the  record  of  the  great  events  in  our  national 
history  that  are  linked  eternally  with  the  name  and  fame  of  that 


78  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

great  soul.  I  believe  the  following  incident  has  never  been 
so  far  related :  A  few  days  after  the  birth  of  that  child  of  glo 
rious  destiny,  a  neighbor  of  the  family  called  to  see  the  proud 
mother  and  her  child.  In  the  course  of  conversation  the 
mother  was  asked  whether  or  not  they  had  given  a  name  to 
him.  "Oh,  yes,"  she  responded,  "we  named  him  before  he 
was  born."  "And  what  do  you  call  him?"  inquired  the  visitor. 
"Abraham."  "Abraham !"  exclaimed  the  visitor,  and  then 
added,  "What  a  name  for  a  baby!  Why,  it  seems  to  me  the 
name  is  bigger  than  the  baby!" 

How  is  it  now?  There  is  such  a  thing  as  making  a  name 
and  there  is  such  a  thing  as  growing  up  into  a  name,  and  in 
this  instance  how  marvelous  the  ascent !  From  deepest  pov 
erty,  to  the  highest  honors  and  emoluments  of  the  nation 
that,  we  believe,  the  greatest.  From  almost  absolute  obscurity 
to  world-wide  fame;  through  honest  industry  in  the  wTay  of 
common  toil  to  glorious  immortality.  Who  now  questions  that 
the  child,  the  boy,  the  man,  the  statesman,  the  martyred  pres 
ident,  the  sainted  and  crowned  king  has  not  grown  up  into 
the  greatness  of  the  name?  Abraham!  Father  of  a  multitude! 
Savior  of  a  nation !  Emancipator  of  an  oppressed  people ! 
Child  of  nature  and  of  God !  The  grandest  exponent  of  popul- 
lar  liberty  of  any  mere  men  whose  names  glorify  the  pages  of 
human  history. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  I  79 


ADDRESS. 

BY    PLEASANT    HUNTER,    D.    D.,    PASTOR    WESTMINSTER    CHURCH, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 
(Read  February  12,  1898.) 


Lincoln's  birthday  is  an  educational  institution  in  which 
all  the  generations  to  come  should  be  schooled.  The  history 
made  during  the  four  years  that  he  filled  the  presidential  chair 
is  a  part  of  our  national  wealth.  It  is  very  fitting,  therefore, 
on  this  his  anniversary,  that  we  recall  the  story  of  his  life  and 
work.  But,  believe  me,  the  feelings  awakened  here  this  even 
ing  amount  to  little  if  they  do  not  lead  to  greater  consecra 
tion  and  devotion  to  the  country  for  which  he  lived  and  died. 
We  honor  him  not  so  much  by  what  we  say  about  him,  as  by 
what  we  do  with  the  heritage  which  he  has  left  us.  The  patri 
otism  that  was  in  him  is  the  patriotism  that  should  be  in  all; 
and  such  patriotism  will  find  abundant  opportunities  for  serv 
ice  today.  One  of  the  most  practical  ways  in  which  it  may 
serve  is  in  seeking  to  invest  citizenship  with  greater  dignity 
and  responsibility.  To  be  a  citizen  in  our  republican  form  of 
government  means  to  be  a  ruler.  All  power  here  resides  in 
the  people  and  all  questions  are  settled  at  the  ballot-box.  It 
is  true  our  national  policy  is  determined  and  our  laws  made 
by  the  chosen  few;  but  to  decide  who  that  chosen  few  shall  be 
is,  practically,  to  decide  everything.  Men  represent  measures, 
and  in  passing  upon  the  one  we  pass  upon  both.  To  exercise 
the  right  of  suffrage,  therefore,  means  more  than  saying  who 
shall  do;  it  also  means  saying  what  shall  be  done.  Voting 
means  more  than  casting  a  ballot  on  a  certain  day  in  the  year; 
it  means  taking  part  in  the  administration  of  government 
throughout  the  entire  year. 

Looked  at  thus,  citizenship  is  a  thing  full  of  dignity  and 
responsibility.  To  say  that  we  cannot  secure  the  best  results 
until  this  is  recognized  by  all,  is  to  say  what  must  be  self-evi 
dent.  Our  nation  can  reach  the  highest  condition  only  when 
it  enjoys  the  best  rule,  and  can  enjoy  the  best  rule  only  when 
its  rulers  are  in  the  best  condition.  To  say  that  many  are  not 
in  that  condition  is  to  say  what  must  be  painfully  manifest. 


80  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

The  number  who  appreciate  the  dignity  and  responsibility  of 
citizenship  is  comparatively  small.  To  the  remedying  of  this 
evil,  all  good  men  should  give  themselves  without  delay  or 
reserve;  and  one  of  the  first  things  to  do  is  to  see  to  it  that 
the  men  who  occupy  what  we  call  the  first  positions  in  life  shall 
attach  more  value  to  it. 

In  his  great  work  The  American  Commonwealth,  Mr.  Brice 
tells  us  that  there  are  three  sets  of  people  in  England;  those 
who  make  opinion,  those  who  receive  and  hold  opinion,  and 
those  who  have  no  opinion  at  all.  The  first  set,  he  tells  us, 
is  extremely  small  in  this  country.  The  statement,  as  he  in 
tended  it  to  be  understood,  is  true.  As  he  further  explains, 
opinion  is  not  made  here,  but  grows;  the  conditions  of  growth, 
however,  are  supplied  by  men,  and  some  make  larger  con 
tributions  thereto  than  others.  Some  men,  in  virtue  of  the 
positions  occupied,  have  a  larger  influence  upon  public  opinion 
than  others.  This  is  notably  true  of  the  successful  merchant, 
the  professional  man — lawyer,  teacher,  or  physician,  the  man 
of  large  property  interests,  the  man  of  high  social  standing. 
There  is  not  a  single  reform  needed  today  for  which  men  in 
these  positions  may  not  do  royal  service.  Particularly  is  this 
true  in  the  matter  under  consideration.  The  men  who  live 
in  the  first  walks  of  life  may  do  much  to  lift  citizenship  to  a 
higher  plane  for  those  who  walk  in  the  humbler  walks  of  life. 
How?  By  themselves  taking  a  greater  interest  in  the  affairs 
of  state  and  showing  that  they  are  moved  thereto  by  the  high 
est  considerations.  The  strongest  argument  in  favor  of  tak 
ing  a  large  view  of  citizenship  is  the  men  in  the  first  walks 
of  life  who  take  such  a  view  of  it.  By  exercising  all  the  rights 
of  a  citizen,  such  men  show  that  it  means  something  to  be  a 
citizen. 

That  there  is  a  lamentable  failure  at  this  point  today  I 
think  is  manifest  to  all.  There  are  many  who  take  practically 
no  interest  in  the  caucus,  and  some  who  even  slight  the  gen 
eral  election.  The  result  is  not  only  to  give  the  reins  of  gov 
ernment  over  into  dangerous  hands,  but  to  give  the  impression 
that  the  whole  thing  does  not  amount  to  much.  In  business, 
professional,  or  social  life  these  men  lay  hold  on  everything 
they  regard  as  important,  and  their  failure  to  do  so  in  matters 
pertaining  to  government  begets  the  feeling  that  they  do  not 
so  regard  it.  The  result  is  not  only  bad  government  but  low 
views  of  citizenship.  The  only  way  to  right  this  evil  is  the 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  81 

practical  way.  The  only  way  to  lead  men  in  the  humbler 
walks  of  life  into  a  right  understanding  of  what  it  means  to 
be  a  citizen  is  to  give  them  to  see  in  the  first  walks  the  right 
kind  of  citizens.  Believe  me,  the  more  the  rights  of  citizen 
ship  are  slighted  by  men  who  know  how  to  appreciate  them, 
the  less  value  will  they  have  for  men  who  need  to  be  educated 
into  appreciation.  Great  reforms  always  work  from  above 
down.  It  is  the  same  here.  Reforms  must  begin  at  the  top. 
Before  we  can  get  men  in  the  humbler  walks  of  life  to  think 
of  citizenship  as  a  dignified  and  responsible  thing,  the  men 
in  the  higher  must  themselves  so  regard  it. 

Another  thing  essential  is  higher  qualifications  for  citizen 
ship.  A  low  standard  always  cheapens.  The  higher  the  re 
quirements  of  the  college  for  entrance,  the  higher  it  rises  in 
public  esteem  and  the  better  the  class  of  students  it  secures. 
The  more  careful  the  secret  organization  is  in  its  election  to 
membership,  the  more  strength  it  has.  The  truth  contained 
in  these  illustrations  holds  with  reg^r.l  to  citizenship.  The 
only  way  to  raise  the  character  of  citizenship  is  to  raise  the 
standard.  The  only  way  to  have  more  men  at  the  ballot  box 
is  to  insist  upon  more  men  on  registration  day.  Wholesale 
naturalization  is  a  curse.  Intelligence  and  righteousness  should 
always  be  insisted  upon.  No  man  should  ever  be  allowed  to 
promise  that  he  will  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  until  he  gives  satisfactory  evidence  that  he  is  capable 
of  reading  that  Constitution.  Do  I  hear  someone  say  that 
to  accept  only  such  as  can  stand  a  certain  test  is  to  discriminate 
against  and  manifest  a  spirit  foreign  to  that  of  our  free  in 
stitutions?  I  answer,  no.  The  higher  rights  of  life  grow  not 
out  of  simple  being,  but  out  of  character.  The  ignorant  man 
is  not  allowed  the  same  privilege  in  the  courts  as  the  man  who 
is  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  law.  He  has  being,  but  not 
legal  character.  The  man  with  the  smallpox  is  not  allowed 
the  same  liberty  as  the  man  thoroughly  well.  He  has  being 
but  not  physical  character.  The  criminal  is  not  allowed  the 
same  rights  as  the  man  who  is  honest  and  law-abiding.  He 
has  being  but  not  moral  character.  Rights  grow  not  out  of 
simple  being  but  out  of  character.  Any  other  rule  in  life  would 
mean  chaos.  Imagine  every  man  who  would  go  into  our 
courts  and  practice,  regardless  of  his  mental  qualifications. 
It  would  soon  mean  the  overthrow  of  law.  Imagine  all  men 
allowed  to  go  up  and  down  our  streets,  the  men  who  have  a 


82  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

contagious  disease,  as  well  as  the  men  who  are  well.  It 
would  soon  mean  the  prevalence  of  disease  everywhere.  Im 
agine  the  criminal  allowed  the  same  liberty  as  the  law-abid 
ing  citizen.  It  would  soon  mean  the  loss  of  respect  for  law. 
Any  other  order  in  our  political  life  means  danger.  The  only 
safe  citizenship  is  that  founded  upon  intelligence  and  righteous 
ness.  Sound  it  into  every  land  that  America  is  still  "the  home 
of  the  free,"  but  let  it  be  of  the  intelligent  and  righteous  free. 
Emphasize  it,  forever  emphasize  it,  that  America  gives  asylum 
because  of  sympathy,  but  citizenship  because  of  merit.  "Amer 
ica  for  Americans"  should  be  the  cry  of  the  hour.  This  does 
not  mean  that  we  will  confine  citizenship  to  all  born  upon 
our  shores,  but  it  does  mean  that  all  coming  to  us  who  are 
not  right  when  they  come  shall  be  politically  born  again. 

Just  another  word,  that  is — we  should  insist  that  citizen 
ship  carries  with  it  the  idea  of  obligation  to  the  state.  There 
is  no  word  made  so  much  of  by  the  American  people  as  "Liber 
ty."  I  am  not  sure  that  we  make  too  much  of  it,  but  I  doubt 
if  we  make  as  much  as  we  should  of  the  word  "duty."  The 
great  majority  of  men  think  of  citizenship  only  in  relation  to 
self.  It  gives  them  a  voice  in  the  administration  of  govern 
ment,  and  secures  to  them  the  protection  of  the  state.  It  is 
all  right  to  think  of  these  two  things,  but  along  with  these 
should  go  recognition  of  the  obligation  under  which  it  puts 
one  to  the  state.  The  closing  words  of  that  immortal  doc 
ument,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  are  these:  "And 
for  the  support  of  this  Declaration,  with  a  firm  reliance  on 
the  protection  of  Divine  Providence,  we  mutually  pledge  to 
each  other  our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  own  sacred  honor."" 
That  wording  of  that  document  secured  to  every  signer  the 
support  of  every  other  man.  At  the  same  time  it  committed 
him  to  the  support  of  every  other.  The  same  is  true  of  citizen 
ship.  And  there  is  no  truth  that  we  need  to  recognize  and 
teach  to  our  children  more  than  this :  That  citizenship  is  a 
partnership;  that  the  man  who  becomes  a  citizen  owes  some 
thing  to  the  country  which  protects  him  as  truly  as  to  the 
grocer  who  provides  him  with  the  necessaries  of  life ;  that 
every  citizen  is  under  the  same  obligation  to  look  well  to  the 
highest  interests  of  the  state  that  the  state  is  to  look  well  to 
his  highest  interests. 

It  seems  to  me  that  on  this  sacred  evening,  one  thing  above 
all  others  should  stand  out  clearly  before  us,  and  that  is  the 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  83 

need  of  meeting  well  our  responsibility  as  citizens.  Lincoln 
did  well  his  duty  in  1861  to  1865.  If  we  meet  the  issues  of 
the  present  day  in  the  spirit  and  with  the  fidelity  with  which 
he  met  the  issues  of  his  day,  the  future  of  this  country  is  as 
sured. 

It  is  said  of  Charlemagne,  that  one  day  he  stood  looking 
off  upon  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  and  saw  in  the  dis 
tance  a  fleet  approaching.  "Whose  vessels  sail  yonder?"  said 
he  to  his  courtier.  "African  merchantmen,  no  doubt,"  he  re 
plied.  The  old  king  hung  his  head,  was  observed  weeping, 
and  someone  said,  "Why  those  tears?"  He  overheard  it  and 
said:  "No,  those  are  not  merchantmen.  Those  vessels  carry 
the  fierce  Northmen.  I  do  not  fear  them  myself,  but  I  am 
weeping  to  think  what  they  may  do  to  my  country  in  years  to 
come." 

We  look  out  upon  the  political  sea  today  and  while  in 
some  respects  there  is  calmness,  there  is  a  fleet  hovering  in  sight 
and  there  are  dangers  in  it.  That  fleet  may  not  bring  trouble 
during  the  days  of  those  farther  along  in  life,  but  unless  judi 
ciously  dealt  with  there  is  trouble  coming.  And  what  is 
needed  is  that  good  men,  irrespective  of  party,  shall  bury  the 
issues  that  are  dead,  forget  the  differences  of  the  past,  and 
unite  and  meet  the  issues  of  the  day.  Righteousness,  and 
righteousness  alone,  can  save  us.  Righteousness,  and  right- 
eusness  alone,  can  make  us  a  free,  prosperous  and  happy 
people.  Let  the  flag  and  the  cross  keep  close  together  and  all 
will  be  well. 


84  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY    ROBERT    G.    EVANS,    UNITED    STATES    DISTRICT    ATTORNEY,    MINNE 
APOLIS. 
(Read  February  14,  1899.) 


It  is  not  an  easy  thing  for  me  to  speak  about  Abraham 
Lincoln.  In  common  with  all  of  you,  I  have  that  feeling 
which  his  name  always  brings  to  the  heart  of  every  Amer 
ican  citizen.  I  was  born  at  the  mouth  of  a  little  river  in  south 
ern  Indiana,  where,  in  the  early  twenties,  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  boy,  earned  a  livelihood  by  ferrying  across  the  river,  and 
it  was  my  fortune  to  be  raised  in  that  county  in  which  he 
spent  the  early  years  of  his  life  when  coming  from  Kentucky, 
and  where  he  laid  in  silence  and  solitude  the  best  friend  he  had 
ever  had — the  best  friend  he  ever  had  in  all  his  life — among 
the  oak  trees  of  my  native  state. 

I  have  known  men  and  women  who  knew  Abraham  Lin 
coln  as  a  boy  in  Indiana,  and  from  them,  with  that  boyish  en 
thusiasm  and  reverence  and  love  which  his  name  and  his 
deeds  ever  engender,  I  have  heard  stories  of  his  childhood 
struggles  that  you  have  read,  and  they  have  given  to  me  a  ten 
der  sentiment  which  always  comes  welling  up  in  my  throat 
when  I  speak  the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Someone  has 
said  that  there  is  more  of  sentiment  about  the  name  of 
Lincoln,  and  about  his  memory,  than  that  of  any  other  his 
torical  character.  I  think  it  is  true.  We  who  look  at  him 
across  the  short  span  of  a  short  life  hardly  realize  that  he  is 
of  the  past.  We  look  at  the  bare  hills  in  Kentucky  which  re 
ceived  the  first  imprint  of  his  childish  feet;  we  follow  him 
through  the  struggles  of  childhood  and  youth  into  young  man 
hood  and  early  manhood,  until  he  became  a  national  character, 
and  we  see  a  man  of  the  plain  people,  imbued  with  all  their 
impulses  and  with  all  their  integrity  and  their  hardships;  when 
he  has  come  into  the  highest  gift  of  any  people  anywhere,  he 
does  not  forget  the  lowly  depths  from  which  he  rose,  nor  his 
companions  and  associations  in  youth,  and  that  memory  does 
more  to  strengthen  him  in  the  days  of  trial  than  everything 
else  that  he  could  bring  to  himself. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  85 

It  is  difficult  to  separate  one's  self  from  others  in  speak 
ing  of  Lincoln,  and  yet  I  have  thought  that  it  might  not  be 
uninteresting  to  you  to  have  me,  in  a  casual  way,  review  what 
all  will  concede  to  be  the  greatest  act  of  the  greatest  Amer 
ican — his  handling  of  the  Slavery  Question.  Lincoln  was  not 
a  man  of  prejudice.  He  was  a  man  of  reason.  He  had  learned 
to  give  and  take.  He  had  learned  it  on  the  green  sward  in  Il 
linois  where  he  pitted  his  strength  against  his  fellows.  He 
had  learned  to  be  charitable,  and  yet  he  was  a  man  of  honest 
purpose,  if  there  ever  lived  such  a  man.  A  man  of  deep  im 
pressions — a  man  whose  heart  received  impressions  which 
remained  upon  it  as  long  as  he  lived,  and  a  man  to  whom 
the  appeals  of  the  downtrodden  and  oppressed  went  with  un 
erring  accuracy — the  very  center  of  his  being.  When  he  first 
came  upon  the  scene  of  public  action  he  was  impressed  with 
the  great  central  thought  of  his  life  and  administration,  and 
that  which  will  hand  him  down  to  .history  more  than  any 
other  one  thing — the  condition  of  this  country  in  regard  to  the 
great  question  of  slavery. 

In  1858  Lincoln  was  comparatively  unknown.  In  1856  he 
received  some  votes,  in  the  Republican  convention  held  in  that 
year,  for  the  office  of  vice  president  of  the  United  States.  They 
were  given  to  him  by  men  who  knew  him  personally,  and  by 
those  who  could  be  influenced  by  such  personal  acquaint 
ances.  But  in  '58,  pitted  against  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the 
little  giant  of  Illinois,  and  of  the  northern  Democracy  of  that 
day,  he  first  came  into  public  notice.  The  great  question 
agitating  the  mind  of  the  people  of  that  day  was  the  slavery 
question.  They  became  candidates  of  their  respective  parties 
for  the  office  of  United  States  senator.  They  went  before  the 
people  nominated  in  the  state  conventions  of  their  several  par 
ties  for  that  office,  and  there  followed  the  greatest  contest  of 
debate  ever  waged  upon  the  stump  in  this  country  of  ours. 
Many  men  here  remember  how  much  interest  was  attracted 
to  the  territory  over  which  these  two  great  intellectual  giants 
waged  a  warfare,  the  results  of  which  were  not  seen  until  '63, 
when,  by  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  the  shackles  were  stricken 
from  the  arms  of  four  million  slaves. 

Douglas  was  the  idol  of  his  party,  and  he  well  might  have 
been — a  man  of  genius  and  intellectual  force,  who  attracted  the 
admiration  and  won  the  affection  of  all  those  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact.  He  had  but  recently  passed  through  stirring 


86  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

scenes  in  the  United  States  senate.  The  Missouri  Compromise 
Bill  had  been  repealed,  and  following  upon  it,  in  order  to  meet 
the  demands  of  the  North,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  had  introduced 
and  passed  in  Congress  the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  bill,  which 
was  the  popular  Sovereignty  bill,  as  known  in  that  day,  giv 
ing  to  the  people  of  each  state  and  of  each  territory  the  right 
to  say  whether  that  state  or  territory  should  be  free  or  slave. 
It  was  followed  almost  immediately  by  the  Dred  Scott  de 
cision,  handed  down  by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  which  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  held  that  under  the  con 
stitution  of  this  country  the  territories  were  subject  to  slavery, 
and  could  not  be  taken  from  under  its  ban  by  the  voice  of 
the  people.  Thus  there  came  a  contest  between  Lincoln  on 
one  side,  who  believed  in  the  non-extension  of  slavery — in  its 
restriction,  and  in  its  ultimate  extinction;  and  Douglas,  on  the 
other  side,  who  believed  in  leaving  the  institution  as  it  was, 
restricting  it  within  reasonable  limits,  and  leaving  the  ranks 
of  his  party  in  the  South,  as  well  as  in  the  North. 

Lincoln  announced,  in  the  first  speech  that  he  made,  his 
ultimate  purpose,  his  ultimate  belief — his  ultimate  platform,  if 
you  may  say — upon  this  question,  in  that  great  speech  best 
known  in  history  as  the  "divided-house  speech."  Said  he: 

"A  house  divided  against  itself  can  not  stand.  I  do 
not  believe  that  this  Union  can  endure  permanently  half 
slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dis 
solved, — I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall,  but  I  do  expect 
it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  be  all  one  thing,  or  all 
the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  prevent 
the  further  spread  of  it  and  force  the  public  mind  to  be 
lieve  in  its  ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  press 
it  onward  until  it  becomes  and  receives  the  sanction  of 
the  law  alike  in  all  the  states,  old  as  well  as  new.  North 
as  well  as  South." 

He  saw  the  inevitable  conflict  and  from  that  day  Abraham  Lin 
coln  was  morally  attached  to  the  extinction,  by  lawful  means,  of 
slavery  in  the  United  States. 

I  think  he  little  thought  then  of  becoming  president  of  this 
great  country,  but  that  was  his  belief  upon  that  question.  Two 
years  afterwards,  in  the  providence  of  God — because  it  was  in 
His  providence — he  was  called  to  head  this  nation  in  the  hour 
of  her  distress.  He  represented  a  people  divided  in  the  North 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  87 

as  well  as  in  the  South.  In  the  parties  as  aligned  in  that  day 
there  were  men  who  believed  in  the  institution  of  slavery  who 
lived  north  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line,  and  who  insisted 
on  the  perpetuation  of  its  so-called  right. 

When  Abraham  Lincoln  took  his  oath  of  office  in  Wash 
ington,  more  than  a  month  had  elapsed  since  the  secession  of 
seven  of  the  southern  states,  and  the  election  of  a  president 
of  that  Confederacy.  No  other  man  was  ever  called  into  a  posi 
tion  of  so  much  responsibility  as  that  which  he  held, — under 
such  circumstances  as  met  him.  He  realized  that  out  of  the 
conflict  then  impending  there  would  come  a  change  in  the  in 
stitutions  of  this  country  which  would  either  destroy  the  Un 
ion  and  perpetuate  slavery,  or  destroy  slavery  and  perpetuate 
the  Union.  He  sa\v,  as  he  believed,  that  the  conscience  of  the 
people  of  this  country,  as  well  as  the  conscience  of  mankind, 
and  the  providence  of  God  would  lead  the  stars  and  stripes  to 
victory  in  the  end.  And  that  hope  buoyed  him  up  in  the  af 
fairs  which  he  met.  And  yet,  as  I  say,  no  man  had  a  task 
more  severe  set  before  him  than  that  which  met  our  martyred 
president.  There  were  radicals  in  the  Republican  party  which 
elected  him  president  of  the  United  States  who  wished  him 
to  at  once  issue  an  Emancipation  Proclamation,  striking  by  its 
edict  the  shackles  from  the  slave.  There  were  others  who  in 
sisted  that  if  slavery  was  the  question  of  battle — they  were 
not  interested  in  its  results;  and  all  over  the  United  States 
there  was  a  division  of  opinion  w7hich  made  it  impossible  for 
him,  as  president  of  the  United  States,  to  take  any  decided 
position  upon  the  great  question  of  ultimate  extinction  of 
slavery,  without  running  the  risk  of  alienating  from  the  Union 
some  of  her  strongest  defenders.  He  was  not  radical  enough 
for  many  who  supported  him  for  the  presidency.  He  was  too 
radical,  or  might  be  too  radical  for  many  thousands  who  must 
be  depended  upon  to  carry  the  Union  cause  to  victory. 

That  condition  met  him.  You  remember  that  at  the  be 
ginning  of  the  war  those  who  opposed  it  and  opposed  Mr. 
Lincoln,  called  it  an  Abolition  War,  and  you  will  remember 
that  Abraham  Lincoln  declared  that  it  was  not  an  Abolition 
War,  it  was  a  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union;  and  he 
waited  with  the  greatest  care,  resisting  all  urgings  from  every 
source  against  any  affirmative  action,  until  the  flag  of  the  Un 
ion  was  fired  against  in  the  harbor  at  Fort  Sumter  and  the  Un 
ion  itself  attacked,  and  then  Abraham  Lincoln  called  for 


88  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

seventy-five  thousand  troops  to  defend — not  to  put  down  slav 
ery — but  to  defend  the  Union.  Yet  all  the  time  in  his  great 
mind  this  great  moral  question  was  being  considered.  Men 
were  urging  this  and  that  position  upon  him.  He  saw  the  sit 
uation,  and  he  saw  the  difficulties  that  surrounded  him.  If 
he  had  listened  to  the  radical  advisors  that  were  at  his  elbow, 
no  man  can  today  tell  what  would  have  been  the  result. 

Seward,  his  secretary  of  state,  who  was  the  most  popular 
man  in  the  United  States  at  that  time,  came  to  the  convention  its 
most  popular  candidate;  but  the  convention  was  held  in  check. 
He  was  called  to  the  Cabinet,  bringing  him  under  the  shadow 
of  Lincoln  and  within  his  control,  rather  than  leaving  him  in 
Newr  York,  or  Chase  in  Ohio,  or  Cameron  in  Pennsylvania,  to 
differ  with  the  administration.  When  the  administration  was  a 
little  'more  than  a  month  old,  Horace  Greeley  wrote  Mr.  Lin 
coln  in  effect  that  it  had  been  a  failure,  and  that  the  radical 
means  which  men  believed  in  had  not  been  adopted;  and  yet 
it  was  not  until  May,  1862,  that  Lincoln  dared  to  take  any 
steps  upon  that  question,  and  then  he  advised  the  co-opera 
tion  plan  of  emancipation  to  Congress,  and  it  was  adopted 
by  a  resolution  of  both  houses.  At  the  same  time  he  declared, 
so  as  to  allay  excitement,  and  prevent  those  who  were  opposed 
to  a  Union  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  slavery,  that  it  was 
not  the  intention  of  the  United  States  to  make  war  upon  that 
institution. 

A  little  later,  in  that  same  year,  General  David  Hunter 
issued  a  proclamation,  by  which  he  declared  the  slaves  within 
his  jurisdiction,  as  a  military  action,  free.  Mr.  Lincoln  is 
sued  a  statement  in  which  he  denied  any  knowledge  of  any 
authority  for  such  a  proclamation  on  the  part  of  Gen.  Hunter, 
and  in  which  he  held  it  to  himself,  the  right — and  stated  in 
square  and  fair  language  the  right — to  determine  this  ques 
tion  of  emancipation  whenever  it  became  a  military  necessity. 

He  called  the  attention  of  the  South  to  the  resolution  of 
March  6th,  and,  in  language  the  most  plaintive,  appealed  to 
them  to  heed  the  words  sent  out  from  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  and  the  offer  of  the  people  of  the  North,  and 
co-operate  with  them  in  removing  this  great  cause  of  dis 
turbance.  No  man  has  ever  read  a  more  pleading  appeal  to 
a  people  than  that  which  the  president  made  to  the  people 
of  the  South  at  that  time.  He  besought  them  to  give  it  a 
fair  consideration,  ranging  far  above  partisan  politics.  He 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  89 

told  them  that  it  was  for  a  common  purpose,  urged  in  a  com 
mon  cause.  He  "blamed  no  one,  yet  he  did  not  want  them  to 
feel  that  the  North  was  holding  up  its  hands  in  holy  horror 
against  their  institution.  He  told  them  that  the  opportunity 
was  presented  to  them  to  do  more  good  than  had  ever  been 
presented  at  any  other  time  in  the  history  of  the  world  by  any 
other  one  act,  and  he  besought  them  to  heed  the  appeal  of 
the  North;  and  finally  he  wound  up  by  saying,  as  I  recollect 
it,  "May  not  the  vast  future  have  cause  to  regret  your  action 
in  this  matter." 

I  doubt  not  that  he  had  in  mind  then  the  countless  graves, 
the  widowed  homes,  the  orphan  children,  which  were  the  re 
sult  of  a  prolongation  of  that  contest.  This,  I  think,  was  in 
May,  1862.  In  September  of  that  year  he  saw  that  the  time 
had  come  when  some  definite  step  must  be  taken,  and  he  saw 
it  for  this  reason  :  We  had  been  having  losses  in  battle ;  foreign 
nations  were  looking  to  the  Southern  Confederacy  with  the 
purpose  of  recognizing  it  as  an  independent  nation,  and  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  felt  that  he  knew — and  that  he  did  feel  there  can 
be  no  doubt — that  the  moral  conscience  of  the  people  of  civil 
ized  foreign  lands  would  not  allow  them  to  recognize,  as  an 
independent  nation,  a  nation  which  was  basing  its  opposition 
to  the  government  solely  on  the  institution  of  slavery.  Recog 
nizing  that  fact,  he  issued  his  proclamation  of  the  22d  of 
September,  1862,  in  which  and  by  which  he  stated  that  in  all 
states  and  parts  of  states  in  which  rebellion  existed  on  the 
first  day  of  January,  1863,  those  men  who  had  been  held  in 
slavery  should  forever  thereafter  be  free.  At  the  same  time 
he  declared  that  the  war  thereafter,  as  theretofore,  should  be 
conducted  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  the  constitutional  re 
lations  theretofore  existing  between  the  United  States  and  the 
seceded  states,  and  that  it  was  his  purpose  to  call  the  atten 
tion  of  Congress  to  a  plan  of  emancipation  which  should  carry 
with  it  pecuniary  aid  to  those  who  lost  their  slaves. 

See  the  wisdom  of  it.  Upon  one  side  he  was  dealing  with 
a  heated  people,  who  would  listen  to  no  appeals,  and  who 
spurned  them  whenever  they  \vere  given.  The  resolution  of 
March  6th  was  met  with  jibes  in  the  South.  The  resolution 
of  September  22d  was  met  in  the  same  way,  and,  though  it 
showed,  as  his  first  inaugural  showed,  the  fairness  of  his  in 
tention  and  his  great  heart  toward  that  people,  it  also  showed 
to  all  the  world,  and  particularly  the  people  of  the  North,  that 


90  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

what  the  South  was  fighting  for  was  the  institution  of  slav 
ery  and  the  destruction  of  the  Union;  and  it  removed  those 
prejudices  which  had  before,  in  a  great  measure,  existed,  and 
made  clear  the  way,  and  caused  to  march  to  the  south-land 
a  hundred  thousand  men  who  would  have  gone  for  no  other 
reason,  as  history  tells  us. 

Shortly  afterwards  congress  met,  and  he  sent  to  it  his 
second  annual  message,  in  December,  1862,  in  which  he  pro 
posed  a  plan  for  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  which 
carried  the  whole  question  over  a  period  of  thirty-seven  years, 
and  pledged  the  bonds  of  the  United  States  to  the  holders  of 
that  property,  as  payment  for  their  losses.  Mr.  Lincoln,  I 
do  not  believe,  in  his  own  mind  believed  at  that  time  that 
suggestion  would  be  received,  and  yet  he  made  it  in  the  utmost 
candor  and  in  the  utmost  fairness;  he  believed  in  it  with  his 
whole  heart;  he  therefore  tried  such  measures  upon  the  South. 
But,  following  the  suggestions  which  he  proposed,  was  one  ol 
the  greatest  arguments,  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  ad 
dressed  to  the  people  of  this  country  against  the  divisibility 
of  the  Union  that  the  mind  of  man  ever  penned.  He  showed 
how  impossible  it  was  for  any  one  section  of  this  country  to 
be  divided  and  cut  off  from  another.  He  showed  that  the  ques 
tion  of  slavery  was  simply  a  question  between  generations,  and 
that  this  question  of  contiguitive  soil  and  climate  would  over 
ride  every  other,  and,  that  whatever  might  be  the  result  of  the 
war,  in  the  end  this  would  be  a  united  nation — that  it  must  be 
so. 

The  South  received  this  proposition  in  the  same  manner. 
The  North  received  it  as  another  offer  of  this  great  man  of 
history  to  show  the  fairness  in  which  he  stood  in  relation  to 
that  question,  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  by  the  message  of 
December  1st,  1862,  removed  the  last  straw  of  opposition,  you 
might  say,  in  the  North,  against  the  conduct  of  the  war  upon 
whatever  lines  he  deemed,  in  his  wisdom,  it  should  be  con 
ducted. 

Then  followed  victory  and  defeat;  and  on  the  first  day 
of  January,  1863,  he  issued  his  message  of  emancipation,  in 
voking  upon  it  the  considerate  judgment  of  mankind,  as  a 
military  necessity,  and  the  blessings  of  Almighty  God. 

When  we  look  back  in  retrospection  upon  the  vicissitudes 
of  that  time,  and  the  various  opposition  that  assailed  him, 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  91 

the  advice  that  he  had  on  every  hand,  the  kinds  of  people 
with  which  he  had  to  deal,  the  sentiment  which  he  had  to 
build  up  here,  and  the  opposition  which  he  had  to  allay  there — 
all  arising  out  of  a  tenderness  of  this  question  of  the  freedom 
of  the  slaves — he  met  with  a  united  sentiment  in  the  North; 
and  we  can  now  see,  if  we  never  could  see  before,  the  wisdom 
of  what  at  that  time  was  seemingly  a  vacillating  policy;  and 
we  now  admit,  if  we  never  would  admit  before,  that  in  his 
handling  of  the  Slavery  Question  with  Congress,  and  before 
the  country,  Abraham  Lincoln  showed  his  greatest  genius,  and 
his  greatest  power. 


92  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY  L.   H.    HALLOCK,   D.    D.,    PASTOR   PLYMOUTH   CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCH,    MINNEAPOLIS. 

(Read  February  14,   1899.) 


I  have  held  in  my  hand  a  manuscript  that  never  saw  the 
light  of  publicity — that  was  presented  by  Abraham  Lincoln's 
own  hand  to  a  boon  companion,  who  last  March  took  his 
flight  to  join  his  comrade — a  manuscript  written  in  that 
familiar,  legible,  clear  hand  of  our  president,  being  in  itself 
a  lecture.  My  friend  was  offered  a  thousand  dollars  for  the 
manuscript,  and  he  said,  "No,  I  am  not  so  poor  as  to  take  a 
thousand  dollars  for  that." 

And  its  first  sentence  was  this :  "All  the  world's  a  mine, 
and  every  man  a  miner."  I  should  not  assume  myself,  on  this 
occasion,  to  seek  to  find  any  vein  of  rich  wealth  in  the  char 
acter  or  career  of  Abraham  Lincoln  that  has  not  been  fully 
explored  and  thoroughly  worked,  and  for  that  reason,  since 
the  finest  minds  have  analyzed  and  constructed  his  character, 
and  the  finest  pens  have  written  his  eulogy,  I  shall  not  speak 
in  eulogy  of  this  man,  who,  of  all  Americans,  America  best 
loves.  There  are  no  words  left  unused  with  which  to  grace 
a  character  so  honest  and  transparent,  so  born  of  God  and 
filled  with  his  wisdom,  that  I  might  use  to  add  one  star  of  glory 
to  his  crown. 

But  I  recognize  this  fact — that  what  Abraham  Lincoln 
was,  he  was  because  he  was  of  the  people,  with  the  people, 
and  for  the  people.  It  would  not  then  be  amiss  if  I  should 
say  just  one  word  or  two  concerning  the  American  people  and 
their  present  and  coming  history,  for  I  should  not  go  wide  of 
the  mark,  since  the  personality  of  this  man  has  interwoven  it 
self  into  the  very  texture  of  the  American  people,  and  what 
ever  we  do  hereafter  will  be  redolent  with  the  name  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln.  I  remember  that  in  history  we  are  told  that  there 
was  a  time  when  to  be  an  American  was  to  be  provincial  and 
narrow,  for  the  American  then  lived  on  that  narrow  ledge 
of  poor  land  that  lay  upon  the  arm  of  the  blue  Atlantic,  bound 
ed  on  the  east  by  its  billows,  and  on  the  west  by  a  wilderness. 
But  by  and  by  expansion  struck  her,  and  she  moved  on  to 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  93 

take  the  Connecticut  Valley,  and  then  the  Ohio  Valley,  and 
then  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Then  she  crossed  the  Rockies 
and  conquered  the  Columbia,  and  left  her  flag  on  the  great 
territory  of  Oregon.  And  then  she  went  down  and  caught 
to  her  arms  the  Golden  State,  with  golden  dust  and  golden 
flowers,  and  a  golden  future ;  and  then  of  course  she  got  by 
the  way  Louisiana  and  Florida,  and,  at  length,  not  provin 
cial  was  the  adjective,  but  continental.  But  continental  will 
not  do  today.  The  United  States  has  laid  her  great  palm 
face  down  oh  these  central  territories,  and  at  last  she  holds 
under  her  thumb  spread  the  gem  of  the  Antilles,  and  her  little 
finger  reaches  up  to  Alaska,  and  her  next  finger  reaches  for 
Honolulu,  and  she  stretches  her  long  central  finger  and  finds 
the  Philippines.  And  where  the  flag  stands,  there  the  flag 
stays. 

I  will  irjtroduce  you  to  a  trinity  of  power,  and  guarantee 
that  not  one  of  the  trinity  is  not  dear  to  every  loyal  heart. 
You  know  that  is  the  great  man  who,  in  the  midst  of  fogs 
and  uncertainties  is  able  to  discern  the  pointing  finger  of 
the  great  arbitrator  and  see  that  which  common  minds  do  not 
see ;  and  the  father  in  this  trinity  is  George  Washington,  who,  with 
his  splendid  aristocracy  and  fortunes,  all  consecrated  to  patriotism, 
was  willing  to  come  out  from  his  luxury  and  be  himself  in  sacri 
fice  the  father  of  his  country;  he  saw  in  those  trying  emergencies 
something  of  its  future,  and  he  led  its  arms  to  victory. 

The  next  man,  the  central  man,  must,  of  course,  be  the 
one  whom  today  we  celebrate.  A  man  who  came  with  a  great 
weight  of  responsibility  on  his  soul  to  the  White  House.  A 
man  who,  more  than  all  other  men  perhaps,  became  a  worthy 
sacrifice  for  his  country;  who  lived  his  four  years  in  the  White 
House  with  a  magnificent  service,  who  won  the  hearts  of  the 
people  all,  who  lived  in  perpetual  harmony  and  close  contact 
with  the  people,  and  yet  so  near  to  the  God  he  honored  that 
he  could  see  what  few  men  saw.  Yes,  he,  when  he  lay  down 
his  life  for  the  American  people  was  the  second  person  in 
our  goodly  trinity.  And  he  did  one  thing — made  and  kept  the 
country  a  unit,  and,  being  a  unit  it  still  had,  when  it  was  right, 
the  power  of  a  new  expansion. 

The  third  person  of  this  glorious  trinity  is  the  still  present 
and  abiding  with  us, — the  worthy  successor  of  George  Wash 
ington  and  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  course  I  mean  William 


94  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

McKinley.  And  he  is  demonstrating  the  greatness  of  his  stew 
ardship,  in  that  he,  more  than  most  of  his  subjects,  was  able 
quickly  to  discover  that  the  providence  of  God  was  pointing 
us  far  out  toward  the  Orient.  That,  having  relieved  Cuba, 
and  having  put  our  stamp  of  eternal  non-entity  upon  the 
seventeenth  century  Spanish  Inquisition  and  having  undertak 
en  to  lift  that  cruel  heel  from  the  neck  of  our  neighbor,  he  was 
able  to  discern  that,  on  that  first  day  of  May,  when  the  here 
of  Manila  sank  the  Spanish  fleet  in  the  harbor,  God  meant  what 
we  had  never  dreamed — that  He  would  open  a  highway  to  the 
Orient,  and  help  us  to  lift  the  yoke  of  oppression  from  ten  mil 
lion  savages,  and  teach  them  that  where  the  flag  floats,  there 
liberty  lives,  and  that  we  will  show  them  how  to  govern  them 
selves  according  to  the  principles  of  divine  humanity. 

Ah,  yes,  we  are  living  in  a  great  day.  We  have  stepping 
stones  now  clear  across  the  Pacific.  The  Pacific  is  today  the 
broad  highway  of  commerce,  and  the  American  ships  are  ar 
gosies  of  wealth.  We  are  going  some  day,  having  completed 
the  transit  of  the  globe,  we  are  going  to  meet — what?  A  new 
civilization,  a  new  embodiment  of  self-government.  We  are 
going  to  meet  the  old  and  benighted  settlements  of  the  pop 
ulous  Orient  and  show  them  that  we  have  come  there  to  lift 
them  out  of  their  degradation,  and  teach  them  all  what  this 
blessed  Old  Glory  signifies.  That  is  our  mission. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  Q5 


ADDRESS. 

BY  GILBERT  A.   PIERCE,   U.   S.  SENATOR  FROM   NORTH  DAKOTA. 
(Read  February  14,  1899.) 


There  is  a  perennial  freshness  about  Lincoln's  life  that 
always  interests  me.  It  is  like  the  old,  old  story  of  love  which, 
the  poets  say,  is  never  ended,  but  never  wearisome.  I  think 
that  perhaps  this  is  largely  due  to  the  intense  humanity  of 
the  man,  the  simplicity  of  his  character;  somehow,  going  right 
down  into  our  hearts,  he  crept  into  our  affections.  He  had 
that  touch  of  nature  that  makes  the  whole  world  kin.  Why,  I 
have  read  most  of  the  lives  of  Lincoln,  and  I  think  I  have  read 
just  as  heartily  the  last  one  that  was  written  as  the  first.  The 
Sunday  papers  publish  many  columns  of  incidents  of  his  char 
acter;  none  of  them  very  new,  perhaps,  and  yet  I  read  them 
with  great  avidity,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  it  was  something 
like  having  the  singing,  at  appropriate  times,  of  old  Home 
Sweet  Home,  or  Auld  Lang  Syne. 

And  by  simplicity  I  do  not  mean  triviality.  That  was  very 
foreign  to  Lincoln's  character.  I  was  reading  an  article  by 
Mrs.  Lew  Wallace  the  other  day  which  illustrates  this.  Mrs. 
Wallace  said  that  she  saw  her  little  grandchild  come  into  the 
room,  and  directly  become  very  much  absorbed  in  a  book.  She 
said,  "What  are  you  doing,  my  child?"  and  the  child  said, 
'''Grandmother,  I  am  diagraming,"  and  she  said,  "what  is  dia 
graming,  my  child?"  and  the  child  said:  "It  is  the  correct 
placing  of  the  elements.  Fourscore  and  seven  are  joined  by 
and,  a  subordinate  connective,  copulative  conjunction.  It 
modifies  years,  the  attribute  of  the  preposition."  And  Mrs. 
Wrallace  said,  "My  dear,  what  a  wonderful  thing  that  is.  Did 
you  learn  that  at  school?"  The  child  said,  "Yes";  and  Mrs. 
Wallace  said,  "In  that  work  basket  on  that  table,  my  child, 
is  the  speech  of  Abraham  Lincoln  at  Gettysburg.  I  know  it 
by  heart,  but  I  tell  you,  if  his  head  had  been  filled  with  such 
stuff  as  that  the  speech  never  would  have  been  written."  He 
called  a  noun  a  noun,  and  was  done  with  it;  it  was  his  nat 
uralness,  the  simplicity  of  the  man,  that  so  charmed  us.  He 


96  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

did  not  pose,  he  did  nothing  for  dramatic  effect.  He  was  a 
manly  man. 

How  old  that  speech  at  Gettysburg,  my  friends,  and  yet 
how  newr;  how  its  truths  live  on,  and  will  live  on  forever.  I 
often  wonder  at  the  wisdom  of  Lincoln  as  exhibited  there, 
and  a  little  later  at  nearly  the  close  of  the  war.  You  remem 
ber  that  at  about  that  time  we  were  all  worrying  about  how 
we  were  going  to  pay  this  vast  national  debt  that  had  been 
piled  up  in  suppressing  the  rebellion;  but  Lincoln  did  not  seem 
to  be  very  much  troubled  about  it.  We  were  wondering  how 
the  rebel  states  were  to  be  reconstructed,  and  what  we  would 
do  with  them  when  they  wrere ;  but  Lincoln  looked  beyond,  and 
while  he  saw  the  problem  was  full  of  perplexity  and  trouble, 
he  gave  it  no  great  thought.  He  saw  that  it  was  temporal  and 
ephemeral.  Standing  with  uncovered  head  on  that  field  of 
Gettysburg,  in  the  midst  of  those  new  made  graves,  he  called 
upon  his  countrymen  to  highly  resolve  that  the  dead  there 
should  not  have  died  in  vain;  that  the  nation,  under  God, 
should  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom,  to  the  end  that  the  nation 
"of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the  people,"  should  not 
perish  from  the  earth.  Think,  my  fellow  citizens,  what  that 
means.  It  epitomizes  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  It 
summarizes  in  a  few  lines  an  ideal  government  for  mankind, — 
a  government  toward  which  the  enlightened  nations  of  the 
earth  should  be  pressing  forward — more  particularly  this  gov 
ernment — on  which  so  much  of  human  happiness  depends. 

Mr.  Lincoln  showed  conclusively  that  he  wanted  a  strong 
government  in  many  respects ;  a  government  not  only  able  to 
protect  the  people,  but  able  to  protect  itself.  We  often  hear 
it  objected,  that  a  strong  government  is  dangerous  to  liberty. 
But,  my  fellow  citizens,  a  strong  government  is  all  right  if 
the  people  are  behind  it.  With  intelligence  they  can  make  or 
unmake  it.  I  want  a  strong  government,  and  you  want  a 
strong  government ;  we  want  a  government  strong  enough 
to  reach  its  iron  hand  and  take  by  the  collar  the  rascal  who 
betrays  a  public  trust.  You  want  a  government,  and  I  want 
a  government,  strong  enough  to  hold  up  to  condign  punish 
ment  that  wretch,  be  he  of  the  municipality,  state,  or  nation, 
who  betrays  his  trust,  and  preys  upon  the  treasury  he  has  been 
set  to  guard. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  97 

There  is  a  cry  we  hear  once  in  a  while  of  the  Old  Flag 
and  an  appropriation,  which  I.  venture  to  say  is  a  reproach  to 
us.  It  ought  to  be  mustered  out  of  our  vocabulary.  It  is  said, 
and  some  of  you  know  whether  it  is  true  or  not — it  is  said 
that  certain  bills  in  Congress  have  no  difficulty — and  notably 
it  is  the  River  and  Harbor  Bill — have  no  difficulty  in  passing 
Congress  if  there  is  enough  business  to  be  divided — if  there 
is  a  "piece  of  the  pork,"  as  they  say,  for  enough  members.  It 
is  a  reproach  to  us.  And  I  am  tempted  to  say,  and  you  will 
say,  that  it  would  be  a  piece  of  Spartan  courage  on  the  part 
of  Minneapolis,  a  piece  of  wonderful  unselfishness,  if  you  would 
say  to  the  government  of  the  United  States,  "It  is  not  absolute 
ly  necessary  at  this  time  that  the  channel  of  the  Mississippi 
River  be  deepened  between  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis,  not 
withstanding  the  fact  that  we  realize  that  by  getting  that  ap 
propriation,  and  deepening  that  channel,  we  are  fixing  the 
head  of  navigation  where  God  in  his  wisdom  intended  it  should 
be."  Neither  would  I  oppose  what  two  legislators  of  this 
western  state  are  endeavoring  to  procure — an  appropriation 
of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  improve  the  navigation 
of  the  roaring  Red  River  of  the  North.  I  know  how  neces 
sary  it  is  that  the  gigantic  commerce  of  that  stream  should 
be  encouraged  and  developed.  I  am  not  sure  but  when  I  was 
in  Congress  I  introduced  a  bill  for  that  purpose  myself,  and 
I  have  no  doubt  after  I  did  so  I  received  the  approval  of  every 
person — the  approval  of  every  newspaper  editor  on  the  line 

Now,  I  am  not  very  much  in  favor,  my  friends,  I  am  not 
very  much  of  an  enthusiast  about  these  Philippines.  Person 
ally  I  would  not  give  the  lives  of  the  boys  who  have  been 
sacrificed  there  in  the  last  two  weeks  for  the  whole  archipelago. 
To  tell  you  the  truth,  I  think  Spain  came  pretty  neai  getting 
even  with  us  when  she  sold  us  that  trouble  for  twenty  million. 

But  I  want  a  government  notwithstanding — and  I  have 
found  we  have  got  it — strong  enough  to  whip  the  daylights 
out  of  an  ungrateful  horde  after  we  have  been  sent  eight  thou 
sand  miles  to  liberate  them  from  Spanish  oppression.  It  is 
too  late  to  go  backward  now';  it  would  be  criminal,  as  well  as 
cowardly.  We  have  got  those  islands  by  what  seems  to  have 
been  almost  necessary — or,  circumstances  over  which  we  have 
had  no  control.  We  could  not  return  them  to  Spain  without 
receiving  the  protest  of  every  thoughtful  man  and  woman. 


98  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

We  can  not  conscientiously  turn  them  over,  if  they  are  too 
wicked,  to  any  other  government — any  other  Christian  nation. 
That  would  be  like  the  story  told  of  the  lady  who  was  reciting 
how  she  had  been  saved  from  her  sins,  and  that  when  she  found 
her  diamonds  were  dragging  her  down  to  perdition,  she  turned 
around  and  gave  them  to  her  sister. 

I  am  sorry  this  great  task  is  for  us.  Some  times  it  looks 
like  an  appalling  task  to  me.  I  hate  to  think  of  fifty  thousand 
men,  or  a  hundred  thousand  men,  being  sent  there  to  march  up 
and  down  in  that  tropical  climate,  keeping  a  turbulent  people 
in  subjection.  It  is  contrary  to  our  education,  to  our  tastes, 
foreign  to  the  spirit  of  our  institutions.  Most  of  the  brethren 
that  I  have  heard  have  been  in  favor  of  going  forward,  as 
they  say,  with  a  Bible  in  one  hand  and  a  gun,  or  a  sword,  in 
the  other.  Well,  this  is  a  favorable  time  to  extend  the  gospel, 
and  I  see  that  Senator  Davis  says  that  we  are  undoubtedly  the 
consecrated  evangelists  of  humanity.  But  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  we  can  not  safely  preach  to  an  enemy  until  we  have 
whipped  him,  and  so  I  would  not  take  many  books  just  now, 
but  I  would  take  guns  in  both  hands.  And  this  need  not  hinder 
us  from  praying  for  those  people's  conversion. 

Like  the  old  preacher,  you  know,  who,  when  he  went  into 
a  house  to  pray  with  a  sick  sister,  and  when  this  sister  and 
the  children  were  set  upon  and  brutally  treated  by  the  brutal 
husband  and  father,  that  stalwart  old  Methodist  took  that 
reprobate  by  the  throat  and  choked  him  as  a  terrier  would  a 
rat,  he  said,  "Oh,  Lord  (punctuating  his  words  with  his  fists), 
Oh  Lord,  make  this  wretched  sinner  realize  his  condition,  and 
if  it  be  Thy  will  that  I  am  to  be  the  instrument  of  his  regenera 
tion,  nerve  my  arm,  Oh  Lord,  and  make  him  think  that  hell 
has  broken  loose  on  him !" 

Events  have  loaded  us  with  new  responsibilities.  But,  our 
vision  is  widening,  the  republic  is  ever  growing  in  character 
and  in  influence,  and  in  authority,  as  well  as  in  responsibility; 
and  you  must  remember  that  responsibility,  as  well  as  the 
starry  meteor,  takes  its  way  to  the  westward.  As  Doctor 
Strong  has  told  us,  the  star  of  destiny  first  rested  on  Persia, 
from  Persia  it  was  transferred  to  Greece,  from  Greece  to  Italy, 
from  Italy  to  Britain,  from  Britain  to  America,  and  here  we 
waken  up  in  this  nineteenth  century  to  find  it  shining  like  a 
meteor.  And  here  it  is  to  remain,  for  when  you  leave  the 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  99 

shores  of  the  Pacific  there  is  no  further  west;  beyond  that  is 
the  East — beyond  that  is  the  Orient.  We  have  a  great  destiny 
to  fulfill,  but  I  am  one  who  believes  that  we  can  fulfill  that 
destiny  without  departing  materially  from  the  principles  of  the 
saviors  of  this  republic,  and  I  pray  that  the  doctrines  and 
principles  for  which  they  fought,  are  not  to  be  abandoned; 
that  the  flag  that  you  carried,  the  flag  that  you  love,  the  flag 
we  all  love,  is  to  remain  the  emblem  of  liberty  and  not  be 
come  the  symbol  of  oppression  or  greed;  that  wherever  it 
goes,  its  silken  folds  and  its  resplendent  stars  shall  be  the  har 
binger  of  better  government,  freer  men,  happier  days,  a  sign 
of  promise,  not  only  to  the  people  of  other  lands,  but  to  the 
people  of  our  land  as  well. 

For  what  use,  my  friends,  is  a  republic  if  it  cannot,  in  some 
measure,  lift  the  burdens  of  the  people?  Of  what  use  is  a 
government  of  the  people  if  it  is  not  going  to  benefit  the  people. 
It  was  the  dream  of  Lincoln  that  God,  in  His  own  good  time, 
should  lift  the  burden  of  all  men.  Therefore,  wherever  we  go, 
and  whatever  we  do  let  this  be  our  ultimate  aim,  our  loftiest 
aspiration. 

With  this  thought  then,  I  say,  let  the  old  flag  float  on. 
Where  it  goes  let  prosperity  be  its  handmaiden;  where  it  floats 
in  the  sky  let  the  shackles  fall.  If  we  are  true  to  the  high 
principles  which  guide  us,  the  enlarged  horizon  of  our  nation's 
sky  will  ever  serve  to  make  our  work  broader  and  more  ben 
eficent,  and  then  let  us  pray  that  this  providence  which  has 
brought  together  the  sections  of  our  own  land,  and  banished 
hatred  and  discord,  will  unite  finally  two  hemispheres  in  an 
alliance  for  human  brotherhood,  and  for  liberty  and  law 
throughout  the  world. 


100  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY   GENERAL  JOHN    B.   SANBORN,    U.    S.    VOLS. 
(Read  February  12,  1900.) 


Every  thought  suggested  by  the  birthday  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln  is  elevating  and  inspiring.  We  cannot  think  even  of  his 
mother,  coming  across  the  Alleghanies,  a  mere  child  in  the 
early  days  of  the  century,  living  in  the  frontier  log  cabin  of 
Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  and  in  the  wilds  of  Indiana,  and 
then  giving  to  the  world  such  a  power  as  Abraham  Lincoln — 
a  power  that  in  its  future  was  destined  to  crush  the  necks  of 
the  mighty,  to  sweep  away  the  serried  strength  of  arms,  and 
to  give  liberty  to  an  enthralled  and  enslaved  race,  a  race  that 
had  been  enslaved  for  thousands  of  years — without  standing 
in  awe  before  any  child  that  you  may  meet  in  the  streets  for 
the  reason  of  the  influences  and  the  powers  that  may  be 
wrapped  up  in  her  existence. 

Of  his  father  nothing  was  known  more  than  of  any  farmer 
in  our  agricultural  districts,  and  still  his  name  will,  from  the 
services  of  his  son,  be  linked  with  those  of  the  greatest  orators 
and  statesmen  and  warriors  of  all  times — with  the  names  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  Caesar,  Napoleon,  Charlemagne — and 
Washington,  and  the  great  men  of  the  earth — so  that  manhood 
is  elevated  and  womanhood  extolled  by  the  very  suggestion 
of  their  lives. 

Now,  we  cannot  think  of  his  infancy  in  the  log  cabin,  of 
his  childhood  in  that  remote  frontier  in  those  early  days,  of 
the  early  life  of  the  young  man,  showing  his  public  spirit  at 
the  earliest  age  by  taking  command  against  one  of  the  strong 
est  and  most  hostile  Indian  tribes  before  he  was  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  of  his  learning  the  profession  of  the  law  and 
advancing  to  the  high — even  the  highest — position  at  the  Il 
linois  bar;  of  his  then  becoming  the  great  orator  on  the  ques 
tion  of  the  impossibility  of  preserving  this  Union  half  slave 
and  half  free,  and  securing  the  strength  and  support  of  all 
the  best  people  of  the  country,  without  reaching  the  highest 
appreciation  of  the  man,  even  before  he  entered  upon  his  great 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  101 

career  as  a  statesman  and  as  president  of  the  United  States. 

One  of  the  most  marked  features  of  his  whole  life  was  his 
independence  of  thought  and  action.  He  was  an  anti-slav 
ery  man,  but  at  the  same  time  the  most  ardent  supporter  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  He  came  forward  in 
an  age  which  the  younger  people  here  present  cannot  remem 
ber,  when  the  most  intelligent  and  wisest  and  most  patriotic 
people  in  the  eastern  states  resolved  many  times  that  the  only 
exodus  of  the  American  slave  from  his  house  of  bondage  was 
over  the  ruins  of  the  American  Union;  resolved  again  at  some 
of  the  largest  conventions  at  Boston  that  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  a  league  with  death,  and  a  covenant 
with  hell. 

He  saw  no  hope  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  except 
in  the  preservation  of  the  constitution.  In  this  respect  he  dif 
fered  from  many  of  the  most  learned  and  the  wisest  of  the 
public  men  of  his  day,  and  this  was  the  great  secret  of  his 
success.  His  eye  was  steadfastly  fixed  on  that  one  proposi 
tion — to  maintain  the  constitution.  He  entered  upon  the  war 
with  no  purpose  of  changing  the  constitution  in  the  least  de 
gree.  He  brought  forward  the  proposition  of  compensated 
emancipation  of  the  slaves;  he  brought  forward  the  proposi 
tion,  at  last,  that  if  the  Union  could  not  be  preserved  by  the 
masters  giving  up  the  slaves,  then,  if  it  was  necessary  to  pre 
serve  the  constitution,  he  would  free  the  slaves.  In  this  re 
spect  he  differed  from  the  leading  public  men  of  his  day,  and 
he  was  compelled  to  resist  the  strongest  combinations  of  the 
most  powerful  men  in  public  life  in  the  nation,  and  stand  by 
himself  on  all  these  occasions. 

He  had  no  supporter  in  sustaining  Grant  in  command  of 
the  army  of  the  Tennessee  after  the  20th  of  July,  1863,  in 
the  senate,  or  in  the  house,  or  among  the  public  men  of  the 
country.  He  took  upon  himself  the  whole  responsibility,  the 
result  of  which  proved  to  be  a  success;  but  even  the  great 
supporters  of  General  Grant  had,  before  that  time,  all  formal 
ly  withdrawn  from  his  support. 

So  much  in  regard  to  the  character  of  the  war — not  to 
abolish  slavery,  not  to  establish  slavery,  but  to  preserve  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  as  it  had  been  framed  by 
Washington  and  as  it  had  come  down  to  his  generation,  and 


102  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

amending  it,  when  amended,  according  to  its  own  terms  and 
provisions. 

I  was  requested  to  speak  tonight  upon  the  origin  and  pur 
pose  of  the  Loyal  Legion.  Its  origin  is  in  the  life  and  serv 
ices  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  in  the  war  that  he  was  compelled  to 
wage  to  enforce  the  laws  and  to  carry  into  effect  his  oath  that 
he  had  taken  on  the  steps  of  the  capitol  at  the  time  of  his 
inauguration — to  support,  protect  and  defend  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States. 

It  is  strange  at  this  remote  day  that  every  one  of  the 
members  of  the  first  class  of  this  Commandery  was  a  sub 
ordinate  officer  in  the  public  service  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  that  we  re 
ceived  orders,  sometimes  direct  in  his  own  handwriting,  and 
that  orders  thus  communicated,  or  received  through  his  sub 
ordinates,  emanating  from  his  mind  and  emanating  from  his 
powers  as  president  of  the  United  States,  were  executed  to 
his  satisfaction;  but  such  is  the  fact,  and  we  are  all  here  living 
thirty-five  years  after  he  has  passed  away.  Now,  one  of  the 
great  objects  of  this  order  was  to  preserve  the  principles,  the 
theories  and  the  policies  of  that  remarkable  man;  to  preserve 
under  all  conditions,  and  to  make  that  the  primary  objects  of 
our  life,  so  far  as  government  is  concerned,  to  preserve  the 
constitution  as  it  is  until  it  is  amended  in  the  manner  and 
form  prescribed  by  itself.  Without  that,  there  is  no  security 
to  this  people  or  to  this  civilization;  and  what  the  result  would 
be  of  its  breaking  up,  no  human  mind  can  foresee  or  tell. 

Our  creed  is  as  broad  as  the  universe;  it  can  be  accepted 
by  both  Jew  and  Gentile,  by  every  race  and  by  every  language, 
provided  they  have  been  fortunate  enough  to  have  been  in 
the  military  service  of  the  United  States  and  in  the  exercise 
of  sovereign  powers,  as  an  officer,  during  the  war  of  the  rebel 
lion.  That  creed  is  an  unfaltering,  an  unyielding,  and  an 
absolute  belief  and  faith  in  God;  and  a  man  who  has  not  that 
faith  and  that  belief  cannot  be  a  member.  We  are  all  familiar 
with  the  old  expression  that  "the  undevout  astronomer  is 
mad" ;  but  an  unbelieving  man  in  God  can  be  little  above  an 
animal. 

WTe  may  disbelieve  all  the  religious  creeds,  but  when  it 
comes  to  the  question  as  to  whether  there  is  an  omnipotent, 
an  omniscient  and  overruling  and  absolute  power  governing 
men  and  nations,  there  is  no  room  for  doubt.  There  is  no  room 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  103 

for  any  hesitation.  We  can  all  doubt  our  own  immortality,  but 
we  cannot  doubt  the  existence  and  power  of  God.  Hence  I  say 
our  creed  is  as  broad  as  the  universe. 

Now,  the  objects  to  be  accomplished.  I  have  already  hint 
ed  at  these  objects.  The  first  and  most  important  is  to  pre 
serve,  as  I  said,  the  principle  upon  which  the  war  was  con 
ducted,  the  principle  that  the  constitution  must,  under  all 
circumstances,  be  maintained;  to  preserve  the  memories  of 
the  war  and  the  traditions  of  the  war;  to  preserve  the  respect 
we  have  for  each  other  and  the  attachments  formed  in  the 
military  service  we  rendered  to  the  United  States,  to  our  gen 
eration,  and  to  the  whole  human  race  by  obeying  the  orders 
of  our  illustrious  chief,  whose  birth  is  this  day  commemorated. 

There  is  a  frivolous,  laughable,  ridiculous  feature  con 
nected  with  our  meetings,  but  what  harm  can  a  little  mirth 
do  in  such  staid,  old,  reliable  men  as  we  are?  Who  can  object 
to  our  laughing  a  little  still  at  the  old  story  of  the  Irish  matron 
who  brought  her  son  to  the  colonel  of  the  regiment,  as  it 
was  about  to  embark  south,  telling  him  that  she  wanted  to 
introduce  her  son  Patrick  to  him,  wanted  him  to  know  him. 
She  said  that  she  had  told  the  boy  that,  if  the  regiment  ever 
got  into  a  battle,  to  "keep  near  the  colonel"  and  he  would 
"never  be  hurted."  Or  at  the  story  of  the  picket  in  front  of 
one  of  the  great  armies  of  the  East.  He  was  ordered  by  his 
colonel — the  field  officer  of  the  day — to  fire  in  the  event  that 
there  was  any  unusual  noise  in  the  night,  and  he  would  come 
immediately.  The  mules  that  had  made  their  supper  on  the 
wagon  box  itself,  instead  of  anything  it  contained,  suffering 
from  hunger  and  lack  of  water,  had  broken  loose  and  torn 
their  way  through  a  stumpy  field,  and  braying,  caused  the 
picket  to  fire.  When  the  colonel  came  up  and  asked  him  what 
the  matter  was,  "Why,"  said  he,  "I  think  the  whole  confederacy 
is  advancing." 

Now,  there  is  no  harm  in  all  this  thing,  and  it  is  not  the 
great  aim  and  purpose  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  it  is  simply  a  part 
of  the  mirth  and  the  life  which,  if  we  enjoy,  we  think  nobody 
should  find  any  fault  with.  But  we  have  a  higher  ambition, 
a  greater  aim  still,  and  that  is  to  relieve  and  assist,  as  far  as 
possible,  any  of  these  companions  and  any  members  of  their 
families  that,  in  the  latter  portion  of  life,  come  to  the  point 
where  assistance  is  needed.  Our  experience  as  a  Commandery 


104  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

in  this  respect  has  been  very  wonderful.  We  have  not  been 
called  upon  to  furnish  any  particular  aid,  I  believe,  to  any  in 
dividual.  We  had  arranged  once  or  twice  to  do  so,  but  other 
relief  was  found,  and  I  do  not  think  that  our  treasury  to  this 
day,  although  we  have  been  in  existence  fifteen  years,  has 
ever  been  called  upon  for  a  single  dollar  for  that  purpose;  but 
we  always  hold  ourselves  ready  to  make  the  offer  in  case  of 
need,  which  certainly  is  commendable  and  laudable  in  every 
respect.' 

There  this  cultivation  of  patriotism  that  we  believe  in 
on  all  occasions,  not  a  sentimental  patriotism,  not  a  patriot 
ism  that  exists  simply  in  the  mind,  but  an  active,  practical, 
sacrificing  patriotism  that  will  come  to  the  front  and  take  sides 
with  the  government  in  every  important  emergency  and  take 
an  active,  energetic,  decided  part.  We  may  differ  on  all  non- 
essentials  pertaining  to  government,  but  when  it  comes  to 
that  which  is  essential  to  its  preservation,  then  we  must  stand, 
as  we  always  have  stood,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  act  as  one 
man.  This  does  not  include  the  necessity  of  believing  that 
there  is  but  one  single  way  to  vote  on  matters  not  essential 
to  the  preservation  of  the  government,  but  I  desire  to  im 
press  upon  this  audience  the  immense  advantages  derived 
from  associations  in  society  of  great  numbers  of  our  people 
monize  their  ideas.  For  a  community  to  be  stable  the  great 
who  discuss  public  questions,  and  thereby  assimilate  and  har- 
mass  of  its  members  must  think  alike  on  questions  pertain 
ing  to  their  institutions.  The  membership  of  churches,  num 
bering  millions,  works  to  this  end.  In  the  Loyal  Legion, 
composed  now  of  more  than  eight  thousand  members,  this 
condition  is  worked  out  to  a  larger  extent  than  in  any  other 
organization  not  having  a  larger  membership.  Men  must  think 
and  think  alike  on  a  great  many  things,  and  on  most  funda 
mentals,  and  they  never  can  be  brought  to  think  alike  until 
they  discuss  these  questions  with  each  other  and  their  minds 
assimilate  upon  what  is  the  true  and  what  is  the  false  in  prin 
ciple,  and  in  theory.  That  is  one  of  the  great  objects  result 
ing  from  such  an  organization.  We  meet  and  we  correct  his 
tory  to  a  great  extent,  in  writing  up  what  we  saw  and  what 
we  did  in  the  war,  and  what  we  know  of  certain  events  and 
centain  transactions,  upon  which  a  correct  history  can  be 
made. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  105 


ADDRESS. 

BY    DANIEL    FISH,    ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,    MINNEAPOLIS. 

(Read  February  12,  1900.) 


There  are  at  least  two  special  dangers  which  beset  anyone  who 
tries  to  speak  briefly  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  One  is  that  the  time  may 
be  unprofitably  consumed  in  mere  eulogy, — that  kind  of  undiscrimin- 
ating  laudation  of  which  there  has  been  more  than  enough;  the 
other,  that  in  avoiding  that  error,  one's  hurried  words  may  seem 
to  detract  from  the  dignity  of  a  great  theme. 

Two  considerations,  however,  tend  to  reassure  me.  One  is  con 
tained  in  a  wise  hint  once  dropped  by  Mr.  Lincoln  himself.  On 
facing  an  unkown  audience  in  a  strange  city  he  said :  "I  have 
found  that  when  one  is  embarrassed,  usually  the  best  way  to  get 
through  with  it  is  to  quit  talking  or  thinking  about  it,  and  go  at 
something  else."  The  other  comforting  reflection  is,  that  I  have 
some  right,  small  though  it  be,  to  join  with  all  who,  anywhere,  seek 
to  honor  the  hero  of  this  feast.  I  know  that  vainglory  is  con 
demned, — that  "Pride  goeth  before  destruction,  and  a  haughty 
spirit  before  a  fall" — yet,  God  help  me,  I  am  proud,  that  as  a  tow- 
headed  boy  I  was  permitted  to  carry  a  Union  musket,  man's  size, 
and  with  aching  shoulders  and  wobbling  knees,  to  go  along,  when 
the  flag  was  carried  into  all  the  places  where  Father  Abraham  de 
sired  it  to  go. 

Every  suggestion  of  the  hour  is  of  that  faraway  time  when  the 
life  of  the  nation  was  at  stake.  We  are  thinking  of  him  who  was 
constantly  in  the  minds  of  all  who  planned,  or  prayed,  or  fought 
for  the  great  peace  which  was  won  at  last,  and  which  still  abides. 
Such  thoughts  are  especially  appropriate  to  this  birthday  evening, 
but  every  meeting  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  I  fancy,  must  be  a  Lincoln 
memorial.  You  could  not,  as  your  custom  is,  recall  old  memories 
of  the  battle  years  without  feeling  the  benignant  and  approving 
presence  of  your  old  commander  in  chief.  Your  "Glimpses  of  the 
Nation's  Struggle"  would  be  glimpses  indeed,  if  they  were  not  illum 
ined  by  thoughts  of  the  master-spirit  of  that  struggle ;  the  man  who 
was  both  commander  and  companion,  the  man  who  was  able  to  di 
rect  the  forces  of  patriotism  at  home  as  well  as  the  armies  afield ; 


106  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

the  kindly,  patient,  wide-visioned  chieftain  who,  as  truly  as  any 
comrade  in  the  blue,  pledged  and  paid  his  life  that  the  nation  might 
live.  You  are  the  contemporaries  and  coadjutors  of  that  man,  the 
greatest  that  the  nation  founded  by  Washington  has  produced ;  the 
greatest  in  personal  influence  and  official  power,  the  greatest  in 
sacrifice  and  service,  immeasurably  the  greatest  in  public  harm 
averted  and  in  national  benefits  achieved. 

Of  course  it  is  not  needful  that  I  should  declare  these  things  un 
to  you,  but  you  would  send  some  word,  I  take  it,  to  the  future;  to 
those  who  in  times  to  come  will  desire  to  know  this  unique  leader 
as  he  was,  and  who,  mayhap,  will  form  some  judgment  about  you, 
out  of  the  knowledge  which  they  may  gain  of  him.  And  so,  since 
the  value  of  the  message  is  relative  to  the  worth  of  the  sender,  you 
will  not  marvel  that  I  hesitate  to  speak  in  your  name. 

First  of  all,  Lincoln  was  a  man,  and  not,  as  he  is  sometimes 
thoughtlessly  represented,  a  brother  of  the  Gods.  His  fame,  like 
that  of  all  popular  heroes,  has  suffered  from  ill-judged  praise.  The 
writers  of  biography,  and  especially  the  orators  who  declaim  eulo 
gies,  seem  to  lose  all  sense  of  proportion.  A  mass  of  rhetorical  rub 
bish  must  be  cleared  away  before  the  subject  can  be  seen  as  he  lived 
and  walked  among  men.  It  is  related  that  when  Thackeray  was 
preparing  to  write  his  great  novel,  "The  Virginians,"  he  sought  out 
an  American  historian  and  inquired  for  facts  about  the  life  and 
character  of  Washington.  The  answer  was  begun  in  the  conven 
tional  phrase  commonly  resorted  to  in  describing  the  father  of  his 
country.  "No,  no,"  interrupted  Thackeray,  "that's  not  what  I 
want.  Was  he  a  fussy  old  gentleman  in  a  wig?  Did  he  take  snuff 
and  spill  it  down  his  coat-front?"  That  was  the  kind  of  informa 
tion  that  he,  the  historian  of  life,  desired  of  the  hero  of  that  day. 

There  are  nearly  a  thousand  books  and  pamphlets  about  Lin 
coln,  not  a  dozen  of  which  are  worth  buying.  There  is  but  one,  in 
truth,  that  sheds  a  clear  light  upon  the  personality  of  the  man — the 
one  written  by  Herndon,  his  long-time  partner  and  familiar  friend. 
I  unhesitatingly  commend  this  book,  for  in  no  other  have  I  found 
distinctly  revealed  that  touch  of  nature  which  proves  his  kinship 
with  the  world.  This  is  a  misfortune.  Men  are  bound  together 
very  largely  by  a  knowledge  of  their  common  weaknesses.  It  is 
the  great  motive  of  chanty;  and  so  when  a  great  life  is  pictured  as 
faultless,  a  main  cord  of  human  sympathy  with  that  life  is  severed 
and  its  uplifting  force  impaired.  Lincoln  was  intensely  human,  but 
nearly  everything  about  him  lent  itself  to  distortion.  His  obscure 
birth,  his  lack  of  schooling,  his  plain  face  and  ungainly  figure,  the 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  107 

narrow  circumstances  in  which  his  character  was  formed,  the  sim 
ple  life  that  he  led  until  lifted  to  the  people's  throne,  the  strange 
mixture  of  humor,  benevolence,  and  indomitable  will,  and  finally 
the  tragic  death — all  have  contributed  to  mystify  and  mislead. 
Moreover,  his  was  in  truth  the  most  singular  nature  that  was  ever 
unfolded  to  common  gaze. 

Emerson  early  observed,  that  if  .Lincoln  had  lived  before  the 
era  of  printing,  he  would  speedily  have  become  mythological, 
like  Aesop  or  Hlpai.  He  has  become  such,  despite  the  multiplicity 
of  books.  Probably  the  dominant  impression  of  him  today,  for 
instance,  is  that  he  was  an  immoderate  joker.  So  much  has  been 
written  of  his  story-telling  propensity,  of  the  pleasure  that  he 
found  in  repeating  mere  drolleries,  of  his  aptness  in  enforcing 
every  truth  with  a  pat  anecdote,  and  of  his  constant  resort  to  that 
method  of  his  intercourse  with  men,  that  one  would  expect  to  find 
in  his  recorded  words  a  profusion  of  side-splitting  tales.  To  cor 
rect  that  impression,  re-read  some  of  his  popular  addresses  from 
the  stump.  There,  in  the  days  of  his  freedom  from  official  care, 
and  in  the  full  maturity  of  his  powers,  he  came  into  closest  con 
tact  with  his  own  people,  whose  political  action  he  intensely  de 
sired  to  control.  In  those  familiar,  unrestrained  speeches,  surely 
the  best  proofs  of  his  style  are  preserved.  They  are  almost  bare 
of  anecdote.  Wit  there  is,  in  plenty,  but  no  stories;  humor,  of  the 
most  illuminating  quality,  but  all  bent  to  a  serious  purpose.  Once, 
in  chaffing  Douglas,  the  "little  giant,''  for  losing  his  temper  and 
speaking  harshly  of  him  (Lincoln),  the  "big  giant,"  he  reminded 
the  crowd  that  his  waspish  friend  had  begun  the  campaign  with 
honeyed  phrases,  which,  coming  from  so  great  a  man,  were  very 
taking.  "I  was  like  the  Hoosier,"  he  said,  "who  reckoned  he  liked 
ginger-bread  better  than  any  other  man — and  got  less  of  it."  That 
is  about  the  nearest  approach  to  a  "story"  in  the  entire  record  of 
that  famous  contest  for  the  favor  of  his  own  people. 

In  a  similar  way,  exaggerated  notions  are  abroad  in  respect  to 
his  talents.  Because  he  was  unquestionably  great  in  some  direc 
tions,  abilities  are  attributed  to  him  of  which  he  gave  no  sign.  Be 
cause  he  could  state  a  political  or  a  legal  problem  with  incompar 
able  precision  and  explain  it  to  the  simplest  understanding,  he  has 
been  esteemed  a  master  of  literary  expression.  Because  he  was 
attracted  by  certain  pathetic  or  lugubrious  verses,  shallow  critics 
have  pronounced  him  a  poet.  Because  the  things  that  his  work  re 
quired  him  to  know^  were  thoroughly  mastered,  men  have  marvel 
ed  as  though  all  knowledge  were  his.  The  truth  is  that  he  was  not 


108  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

well  taught  in  childhood,  and  was  never  a  student  of  books.  "He 
read  less,  and  thought  more''  Herndon  says,  "than  any  man  of  his 
time."  He  possessed  very  little  of  w^hat  is  called  culture.  The  im 
aginative  faculty  in  him  was  well-nigh  dormant.  It  must  have  been 
so,  for  if  an  eduation  such  as  his  could  develop  a  boy  broadly,  we 
ought  to  abolish  our  modern  schools  and  turn  all  the  children  into 
the  woods.  Still,  although  his  writings  contain  no  allusions  to  the 
classics,  are  barren  of  beauties  drawn  from  nature  or  the  arts,  and 
afford  no  proof  that  he  kne\v  the  history  of  any  country,  but  his 
own, — despite  all  that,  he  was  the  wisest  man  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury,  and  he  ruled  this  nation  by  a  right  of  kingship  that  was  truly 
Divine. 

There  are  those  who  assert  that  Lincoln  possessed  military 
genius  of  the  highest  order.  The  bogus  president  of  a  counterfeit 
confederacy,  you  remember,  held  similar  opinions  about  himself,, 
but  the  real  president  was  very  modest  in  matters  of  war.  In  sport 
ive  moods  he  used  to  tell  how,  in  the  Blackhawk  campaign,  he 
once  led  his  company  across  a  field,  and  how,  having  forgotten 
the  words  of  command  by  which  it  could  be  marched  through  a 
gate  "endways,"  he  gave  the  order  to  break  ranks  for  two  minutes 
and  then  to  form  again  on  the  other  side  of  the  fence.  But  that 
was  not  such  bad  generalship.  We  had  colonels,  and  even  briga 
diers,  who,  in  such  an  emergency  as  that,  would  have  halted  the 
whole  column  and  convened  a  council  of  war.  He  once  congratu 
lated  Seward  that,  although  they  knew  but  little  of  soldiership, 
they  did  know  that  "the  rear  rank  comes  just  back  of  the  front 
one."  Not  much,  to  be  sure,  but  even  that  little  might  have 
saved  them  from  a  mistake  like  that  of  the  general  who  habitually 
kept  his  headquarters  "in  the  saddle,"  where,  as  a  witty  confederate 
observed,  his  "hind  quarters  ought  to  have  rested." 

The  president's  letters  to  generals  in  the  field  show  clearly 
enough  that  his  profound  sagacity  was  not  wholly  at  fault  in  mat 
ters  of  war,  and  it  is  plain  that  mental  powers  such  as  his,  if 
trained  to  the  profession  of  arms,  could  not  have  failed  to  give  him 
a  mastery  of  its  principles;  but  whether  the  deliberate,  sure-footed 
processes  of  his  mind  were  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  active  com 
mand  may  well  be  doubted.  He  might  have  become  a  Thomas, 
but  could  hardly  have  been  a  Sherman  or  a  Sheridan,  while  in  the 
quality  of  extreme  caution  he  was  almost  the  opposite  of  Grant. 
Still,  there  is  the  very  flavor  of  Grant's  most  characteristic  trait  in 
that  dispatch  to  Hooker,  in  which  he  says :  "If  the  head  of  Lee's 
army  is  at  Martinsburg,  and  the  tail  of  it  on  the  plank  road  between 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  109 

Fredericksburg  and  Chancellorsville,  the  animal  must  be  very  slim 
somewhere.  Could  you  not  break  him?" 

But  the  highest  generalship  of  the  war  was  displayed,  and  its 
most  decisive  battles  were  fought  not  in  the  South,  but  in  the 
North.  It  was  a  stupendous  moral  struggle  through  which  the 
nation  freed  itself  from  the  taint  of  death,  and  in  that  higher  com 
bat  Lincoln  was  in  immediate  and  direct  command.  The  greatest 
battle  of  the  Civil  war  was  fought  in  the  summer  of  1858.  The 
Lincoln  and  Douglas  contest  for  the  Illinois  senatorship  was  the 
intellectual  Gettysburg  which  marked  the  high  tide  of  pro-slavery 
aggression.  Its  story  has  all  the  dramatic  interest  of  a  conflict  of 
arms.  There  was  the  premonitory  stirrings  of  the  belligerent  spirit, 
the  sullen  gathering  of  the  clouds  of  wrath,  the  clarion  call  to  arms, 
the  massing  of  opposing  strength,  the  patient  moulding  of  incon 
gruous  materials  into  a  disciplined  army,  the  cautious  maneuvering 
for  position,  the  rattling  skirmish  fire,  the  roar  of  battle  and  the 
rushing  charge;  and  finally  the  conquest  of  ground  from  which  all 
the  cohorts  of  hell  could  never  dislodge  us.  And  from  that  emi 
nence,  to  which  Lincoln  led  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the  North 
in  the  fifties,  went  forth  the  power  which,  under  his  consummate 
management,  crushed  the  nation's  foes  and  redeemed  it  from  its 
shame. 

No  fact  of  war  history  is  so  fixed  in  my  memory  as  the  fact  of 
Lincoln's  peculiar,  almost  superhuman  influence  upon  public  opin 
ion  throughout  the  war  period.  It  was  like  the  supreme  confidence 
in  which  Sherman's  command  followed  him  on  the  march  to  the 
sea,  and  from  Savannah  to  the  end.  When  that  northward  plunge 
was  made,  the  men  knew  that  a  winter  campaign  through  the  Caro 
lina  swamps  was  pronounced  by  military  authorities  to  be  impos 
sible;  but  if  Sherman  had  said  it  was  necessary  to  wade  the  At 
lantic,  that  army  would  have  rolled  up  its  trousers  and  started  for 
the  beach.  Such  was  the  sublime  faith  of  the  great  North  in  Lin 
coln's  judgment.  As  Sherman's  men  trusted  him  because  he  had 
earned  their  trust,  so  Lincoln's  word  was  law  because  his  wisdom 
had  been  tested  and  proven.  We  knew  that  his  purpose  was  our 
purpose,  that  the  nation  should  not  be  destroyed.  We  knew  that 
each  throb  of  his  great  heart  was  a  new  declaration  that  all  men 
are  created  equal,  and  every  breath  a  fresh  protest  against  the  en 
thronement  of  human  bondage  on  American  soil.  And  so  the 
people  waited  only  for  his  word,  and  heard  it  only  to  obev. 

It  is  a  common  belief  that  Lincoln  was  especiallv  "raised  up" 
by  a  wise  and  benevolent  Providence  for  the  work  that  he  did.  I 


110  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

have  sought  to  test  that  opinion,  so  far  as  history  enables  us  to  test 
it,  and  of  this  pertinent  fact  I  am  profoundly  convinced :  No  other 
conspicuous  man  of  that  time  could  have  done  it.  Not  one  of  them 
ever  manifested  a  tithe  of  his  peculiar  fitness — of  that  original,  al 
most  eccentric,  genius  through  which  he  was  enabled  to  hold  the 
nation  to  its  awful  four  years'  task.  Each  of  them  sooner  or  later, 
displayed  some  disqualifying  trait,  some  defect  of  judgment,  con 
science  or  will,  which  inevitably  would  have  wrecked  the  nation's 
cause. 

Do  you  recall  that  from  1861,  even  to  1864,  there  was  hardly 
a  statesman  or  a  soldier  in  all  Europe  who  believed  it  possible  to 
suppress  the  rebellion  by  force  of  arms?  That  fact  explains,  and, 
in  a  measure,  excuses  the  conduct  of  England,  of  which  we  so  bit 
terly  complained.  There  w^as  no  precedent  in  all  history  for  any 
such  stupendous  military  achievement.  It  was  not  a  military  achieve 
ment — it  was  vastly  more.  It  was  the  profound  conviction,  im 
posed  upon  South  as  well  as  North  by  the  matchless  logic  and  in 
vincible  faith  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  that  secession  must  fail,  and 
ought  to  fail,  because  it  w^as  wrong. 

Our  confederate  friends  try  to  'delude  themselves  into  the  belief 
that  their  cause  yielded  only  to  overwhelming  physical  power.  Well, 
the  South  knew  all  about  our  superiority  in  numbers  and  in  wealth 
before  she  resorted  to  war;  the  census  had  just  been  taken  and  its 
tale  was  an  open  book,  but  the  pretence  is  futile.  Never  before 
were  eight  millions  of  our  race,  inhabiting  a  land  so  completely  de 
fensible  as  the  South,  and  so  passionately  united  in  a  war  for  polit 
ical  independence,  overwhelmed,  subjugated,  in  four  years,  or  in 
forty,  by  twice  or  thrice  their  number.  Why  did  the  loss  of  a  few 
thousand  men  at  Appomatox  precipitate  that  sudden  and  unanimous 
surrender  from  Virginia  to  Texas?  Why  that  utter  collapse  of  a 
proud  and  warlike  nation  in  a  night?  The  answer  is,  the  capitula 
tion  of  Lee  was  but  the  pretext  for  which  the  South  had  been  wait 
ing.-  Her  faith  was  dead.  Her  armies  had  crumbled  away  because 
the  judgment  of  the  people,  of  which  the  armies  are  but  the  out 
ward  symbol,  had  yielded  to  overwhelming  truth.  And  the  same 
embodied  conscience  and  faith,  the  same  far-seeing  wisdom  and 
unyielding  will — the  same  Abraham  Lincoln  of  immortal  fame — 
inspired  the  high  resolve  that  triumphed  and  dissolved  the  passion 
ate  courage  which  failed. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  HI 

"Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might.  If  slavery 
is  not  wrong,  nothing  is  wrong.  Why  should  there  not 
be  a  patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate  justice  of  the  peo 
ple?  Is  there  any  better,  greater  or  equal  hope  in  the 
world?  The  Union  must  be  preserved;  hence  all  indis 
pensable  means  must  be  employed.  With  charity  for  all, 
with  malice  towards  none,  with  firmness  in  the  right  as 
God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the 
work  we  are  in." 

"Common  his  mind  (it  seemed  so  then), 
His  thoughts,  the  thoughts  of  other  men ; 
Plain  were  his  words,  and  poor — 
But  how  they  will  endure !" 

No  hero,  this,  of  Roman  mould: 
Nor  like  our  stately  sires  of  old : 
Perhaps  he  was  not  great — 
But  he  preserved  the  state !" 


112  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY    HIRAM    F.    STEVENS,    STATE   SENATOR,    MINNESOTA. 
(Read  February  12,  1900.) 


It  is  but  fitting  that  in  the  state  which  was  the  first  to 
establish  this  holiday,  in  the  capital  city  where  the  name  of 
the  first  volunteer  in  the  great  army  of  freedom  was  placed 
upon  the  roll,  in  the  presence  of  the  last  survivor  of  the  war 
governors,  by  whose  loyal  aid  and  energy  that  army  was  re 
cruited  and  maintained,  who  was  the  first  to  tender  troops 
in  defense  of  the  Union,  and  who,  crowned  with  years  and  with 
honors,  still  goes  in  and  out  among  us,  his  eye  not  dim  nor 
his  natural  vigor  abated,  the  Minnesota  Commandery  of  the 
Loyal  Legion  should  celebrate  the  day  which  gave  to  the 
republic,  to  freedom  and  to  the  world  the  priceless  life  and 
memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

The  traveler  across  a  continental  range  sees  height  after 
height  rising  around  him  in  confusing  grandeur;  but  as  he 
passes  on  down  the  foothills,  one  after  another  loses  its  con 
tour  and  is  obscured  until,  finally,  when  far  out  upon  the  plain, 
he  turns  at  twilight  for  a  last  look,  one  peak  alone  stands  out 
above  the  shadowy  range,  its  summit  piercing  the  clouds  and 
radiant  in  the  sunlight  which  has  left  the  rest  behind. 

Thus  it  is  in  human  history.  As  the  years  go  by,  one  after 
another  of  those  who  have  been  conspicuous  among  their 
contemporaries,  passes,  not  into  oblivion,  but  into  the  back 
ground  of  history,  while  that  character  is  indeed  colossal  that 
towers  above  the  horizon  of  its  age. 

It  may  well  be  said  that  that  land  is  fortunate  which  in 
each  century  adds  the  name  of  one  benefactor  to  the  roll  of 
the  world's  immortals;  a  name  destined  to  be  renowned,  not 
alone  in  the  land  that  gave  it  birth,  nor  in  a  single  sphere  of 
action,  but  in  all  lands  beneath  the  sun,  and  in  the  universal 
judgment  of  mankind.  Such  has  been  the  fortune  of  America. 
Near  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  she  laid  to  rest  the 
mighty  Washington,  and  now  his  fame  is  boundless  as  the 
race.  The  nineteenth  century  has  not  been  less  prolific  than 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  113 

its  predecessors  in  its  contribution  to  the  list  of  celebrated 
men;  but  although  only  a  generation  has  passed  away  since 
the  curtain  fell  in  tragedy  upon  Lincoln's  life,  and  we  are  yet 
too  near  the  scenes  in  which  he  lived  to  justly  estimate  its 
lasting  influence,  we  come  upon  this  closing  anniversary  of  the 
century,  to  dedicate  his  memory  to  the  ages,  assured  that  his 
tory  will  yield  him  primacy  among  the  illustrious  leaders  of 
his  time.  During  this  period  so  much  has  been  written  and 
said  about  his  life  and  character  that  little  remains  to  be  told. 
No  tongue  or  pen  can  add  to  the  luster  of  his  fame,  but  to 
his  precepts  and  example,  like  those  of  Washington,  so  abund 
ant  in  inspiration  and  guidance,  we  may  well  resort  in  all  the 
vicissitudes  and  in  every  crisis  of  our  national  life. 

It  was  long  supposed  that  Lincoln's  ancestry  was  as  in 
ferior  as  his  birth  was  humble.  Nothing  is  further  from  the 
truth.  He  was  the  descendant  in  the  sixth  degree  of  Samuel 
Lincoln,  of  Norfolk,  England,  a  member  of  the  Plymouth 
colony,  among  whose  descendants  were  three  governors,  an 
attorney  general,  a  secretary  of  state,  and  a  judge  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court.  All  his  ancestors,  except  his 
father,  wrere  persons  of  character,  ability  and  prominence;  all 
but  one  of  them  were  pioneers,  and  all  of  them  bore  scriptural 
names.  For  fifty  years  before  his  birth  they  had  lived  in  three 
different  slave  states.  Thus  he  inherited  from  an  ancestry 
of  nearly  two  hundred  years  of  adventure,  patriotism  and 
sagacity,  combined  with  deep  religious  sentiment,  not  only  nat 
ural  ability  of  a  high  order,  but  those  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart  that  enabled  him  to  appreciate  the  conflicting  interests 
and  prejudices  which  had  their  respective  sources  at  James 
town  and  at  Plymouth  Rock,  and  fitted  him  better  than  any 
other  man  of  his  time  to  be  the  final  arbiter  of  their  destiny. 
His  parents,  it  is  true,  were  without  education  and  of  limited 
means.  Ninety-one  years  ago  today,  in  the  rude  cabin  of  these 
lowly  Kentucky  pioneers,  began  the  life  of  him  whose  memory 
we  meet  to  honor.  His  childhood  was  one  of  poverty,  but  it 
was  not  the  poverty  of  dependence.  His  youth  was  one  of 
hardship  that  disciplines,  but  does  not  degrade.  The  fire  of 
ambition  burned  in  his  bosom  from  his  earliest  years,  and  he 
made  all  things — books,  men  and  events — wisely  subservient 
to  its  ends.  If  he  had  little  of  the  training  of  schools,  the 
world  was  his  university.  The  books  he  had  wrere  the  world's 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

masterpieces.  He  learned  the  stories  of  the  Bible  at  his 
mother's  knee,  and  to  its  lofty  precepts  he  resorted  in  his 
latest  days.  He  had  Shakespeare,  Burns,  Blackstone  and 
Aesop's  Fables,  and  these  he  studied  with  unceasing  zeal. 
Drinking  deep  at  these  exhaustless  fountains  of  knowledge  and 
inspiration,  he  did  not  miss  the  rivulets  into  which  men  had 
drawn  out  their  overflow.  Having  the  keys  of  the  treasure- 
house  of  literature  he  needed  not  the  small  coin  of  its  shops. 

If  he  lacked  in  social  culture  it  was  superseded  by  the  rude 
amenities  of  frontier  intercourse,  which  sharpened  his  faculties 
if  it  did  not  refine  his  manners.  Born  among  the  "plain  people/* 
as  he  loved  to  call  them,  he  understood  their  traits  and  feel 
ings.  His  sympathies  wrere  ever  with  them,  and  his  services 
always  at  their  command;  and,  so  as  he  rose  in  position  and  in 
fluence,  he  kept  their  confidence  and  esteem.  Accustomed  from 
his  childhood  to  self-reliance,  he  became  an  unerring  judge 
of  character.  Without  ostentatious  profession,  he  was  ever 
reverent  of  sacred  things.  "Show  me,"  said  he,  "a  church 
where  the  only  requirement  is  to  love  God  and  to  love  man, 
and  I  will  walk  a  hundred  miles  to  join  it." 

To  say  that  he  was  raised  up  to  meet  a  great  crisis  is  to 
state  but  half  the  truth.  More  than  all  other  men  combined 
he  induced  and  developed  to  its  tragic  but  beneficent  end  the 
crisis  wrhich  had  impended  since  the  adoption  of  the  consti 
tution. 

During  a  trip  to  New  Orleans  in  his  early  manhood  he 
witnessed  the  brutality  of  the  slave  market,  and  from  that 
hour  became  the  inveterate  foe  of  slavery.  But  such  was  his 
reverence  for  the  constitution  that  never,  even  in  the  throes  of 
civil  war,  did  he  favor  its  forcible  abolition  until  justified  as 
a  military  necessity.  His  highest  hope  was  for  its  restrction 
to  the  orginal  slave  states  and  to  gradual  extinction  there 
through  peaceful  measures.  He  demonstrated  the  fallacy  of 
secession  by  declaring  that  if  one  or  more  states  had  the  right 
to  secede,  the  logical  result  was  that  all  but  one  of  the  states 
might  join  in  seceding,  and  thus,  in  effect,  expel  a  sovereign 
state  from  the  union  against  its  will — a  proposition  which  its 
rashest  advocate  had  never  had  the  temerity  to  advance. 

Loving  the  Union  above  all  else,  he  felt,  as  much  as  any 
statesman  has  ever  done,  the  binding  obligation  of  the  con 
stitution.  Although  slavery  was  abhorent  to  every  fiber  of 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  115 

his  being,  he  felt  bound  to  recognize  the  protection  which  the 
constitution  afforded,  until  it  became  a  choice  between  the 
Union  and  the  constitution.  When  that  moment  came,  and  not 
till  then,  was  he  ready  to  destroy  slavery,  in  spite  of  the  con 
stitution,  that  the  Union,  which  was  the  object  of  the  con 
stitution,  might  survive.  With  dispassionate  but  resistless 
logic,  he  pierced  the  sophistry  of  a  hundred  years  and  sounded 
the  knell  of  its  approaching  doom.  But  such  was  the  virulence 
of  feeling  that,  while  he  became  an  object  of  violent  hatred 
to  the  slave  interest,  this  most  puissant  of  champions  \vas 
scorned  and  reviled  by  the  abolitionists  because,  in  his  con 
servatism,  he  respected  the  constitution. 

After  his  nomination  Wendell  Phillips  referred  to  him  as 
''this  huckster  in  politics  who  does  not  know  whether  he  has 
any  opinions."  Lincoln  was  indeed  a  politician  of  the  most 
pronounced  type,  but  he  belonged  to  a  class  of  which  the 
country  today  needs  more,  and  not  less.  There  are  politicians 
and — politicians.  Some  are  like  the  mercenary  troops  in  earlier 
days — at  the  service  of  the  highest  bidder.  But  there  is  a 
large  and  honorable  class  who,  actuated  by  deepest  principles, 
loyally,  fearlessly  and  proudly  follow  the  flag  of  their  faith  in 
victory  or  defeat,  whether  assigned  to  duty  in  the  ranks  or 
leading  gloriously  on  the  ramparts.  Of  this  class  the  most 
prominent  example  of  the  century  was  Abraham  Lincoln. 
First  defeated  for  the  legislature  of  Illinois  at  the  age  of 
twenty-three,  he  tried  again  with  better  results,  and  was  for 
eight  years  a  member  of  that  body — twice  being  an  unsuccess 
ful  candidate  for  speaker.  Four  years  later  he  was  elected  to 
congress.  Then  he  was  an  unsuccessful  candidate  for  the 
commissionership  of  the  general  land  office.  He  was  twice 
defeated  for  the  United  States  senate. 

His  debate  with  Douglas  proved  him  to  be  a  consummate 
master  of  his  art,  as  well  as  one  of  the  keenest  logicians  of 
his  day.  The  Dred  Scott  decision,  upon  which  the  Southern 
Democrats  based  their  assumptions,  and  from  which  they 
brooked  no  dissent,  had  declared  slavery  to  be  inherently  right, 
under  the  constitution,  and  therefore  entitled  to  protection  in 
all  the  territories  and  the  states  to  be  formed  out  of  them. 
Douglas  had  already  pronounced  in  favor  of  "popular  sover- 
eignity,"  or  the  right  of  each  new  state  to  allow  or  prohibit 
slavery.  Between  these  two  irreconcilable  positions,  Lincoln 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

drove  Douglas  to  a  choice.  If  he  declared  for  slavery  he  would 
lose  the  senatorial  election  and  alienate  the  support  of  the 
Northern  Democracy  for  the  presidency.  If  he  adhered  to 
popular  sovereignly  he  was  in  danger  of  losing  the  South. 
Escape  was  impossible.  He  chose  the  latter  alternative  and 
defeated  Lincoln  for  the  senate,  but  two  years  later  the  South 
refused  to  support  him  for  the  presidency,  and  put  another 
ticket  in  the  field.  The  party  strength  was  thus  divided,  and 
Lincoln  was  elected  by  a  minority  of  the  popular  vote. 

But,  with  all  his  adroitness,  he  was  no  demagogue.  He  did 
not  hesitate  to  accept  the  position  of  attorney  for  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  company  while  he  was  a  candidate  for  the 
senate.  When  addressing  an  assemblage  of  workingmen  he 
said:  "Labor  is  prior  to  capital,  but  property  is  the  fruit  of 
labor.  Let  no  man,  therefore,  who  is  houseless,  pull  down 
the  house  of  another,  but  let  him  labor  diligently  to  build  one 
for  himself,  thus  assuring  that  his  own  shall  be  safe  from  vio 
lence  when  built." 

In  the  administration  of  his  high  office  he  proved  himself 
a  statesman  of  the  first  order.  From  the  day  when  he  demon 
strated  his  skill  as  a  diplomat  in  the  revision  of  Steward's 
famous  dispatch  to  our  minister  at  the  court  of  St.  James,  to 
the  last  important  act  of  his  life,  relating  to  reconstruction, 
subsequent  events  have  not  only  justified  his  policies,  but  have 
shown  that  any  material  variance  during  the  war  would  have 
been  fraught  with  disaster. 

As  an  orator  he  has  contributed  to  the  world's  literature 
some  of  its  choicest  gems.  The  closing  lines  of  his  first  inaug 
ural,  with  which  he  concluded  a  firm  but  pathetic  protest 
against  secession,  were  as  touching  as  they  were  prophetic. 

"The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching  from 
every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living 
heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land  will 
yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels 
of  our  nature." 

Two  years  and  a  half  later,  standing  upon  Gettysburg's 
immortal  heights,  he  uttered  this  classic  tribute,  which  will  be 
forever  linked  to  the  story  of  that  historic  ground : 

"Four  score  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers 
brought  forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  con 
ceived  in  liberty  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  117 

all  men  are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a 
great  civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any 
nation  so  conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endure. 
We  are  met  on  a  great  battlefield  of  that  war.  We 
have  come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field,  as  a 
final  resting  place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives 
that  that  nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting 
and  proper  that  we  should  do  this.  But  in  a  larger 
sense,  we  cannot  dedicate — we  cannot  consecrate — 
we  cannot  hallow  this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living 
and  dead,  who  struggled  here  have  consecrated  it,  far 
above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world 
will  little  note,  nor  long  remember  what  we  say  here, 
but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for 
us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfin 
ished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus  far 
so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  ded 
icated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us — that 
from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devotion 
to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  meas 
ure  of  devotion — that  we  here  highly  resolve  that 
those  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain — that  this  na 
tion,  under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom, 
and  that  government  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for 
the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

The  following  from  his  second  inaugural,  was  his  last  pub 
lic  expression  of  a  great  character.  Its  lofty  and  benignant 
strain  transcends  mere  human  diction  and  breathes  the  spirit 
of  the  sublimest  utterances  of  Holy  Writ: 

"Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that 
this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  pass  speedily  away.  Yet, 
if  God  wills  that  it  continu  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by 
the  bondsman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unre 
quited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of 
blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  repaid  by  another 
drawn  with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  'the  judgments  of 
the  Lord  are  true,  and  righteous  altogether.'  With 
malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firm 
ness  in  the  right  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in,  to  bind  up 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

the  nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have 
borne  the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and  his  orphan, 
to  do  ail  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and 
lasting  peace  among  ourselves,  and  with  all  nations." 
Entrusted  with  supreme  command  of  a  military  establish 
ment,  compared  with  which  the  armaments  of  ancient  and 
modern  times  shrink  into  insignificance,  and  covering  a  field 
of  operaiions  of  vast  extent,  he  proved  himself  master  of  the 
situation,  and  was  in  fact,  as  well  as  name,  the  commander- 
m-chief.  Sagacious  in  selecting  and  loyal  in  supporting  his 
great  commanders,  he  made  possible  the  illustrious  achieve 
ments  and  fadeless  renown  of  Grant  and  Sherman  and  Thomas 
and  Sheridan  and  their  compatriots  whose  place  in  history  is 
secure.  And  how  he  loved  the  common  soldiers.  No  man 
ever  wielded  such  power  with  such  tenderness  and  magnan 
imity.  The  Illinois  circuit  rider  who  dismounted  in  the  storm 
to  restore  the  young  birds  to  the  nest  from  which  they  had 
been  blown,  became  the  soft-hearted  president  wrho  went  from 
cot  to  cot  through  the  hospitals,  and  who  subverted  military 
discipline  by  the  frequency  of  his  reprieves.  The  records  of 
the  executive  departments  teem  with  his  correspondence  in 
behalf  of  the  condemned  and  with  messages  of  sympathy  to 
the  bereaved.  The  funeral  literature  of  all  time  contains  no 
tribute  more  tender  and  expressive  than  this,  which  he  sent 
to  a  bereaved  mother,  just  after  his  second  election: 

"Dear  Madam  :  I  have  been  shown,  in  the  files  of 
the  war  department,  a  statement  of  the  Adjutant  Gen 
eral  of  Massachusetts,  that  you  are  the  mother  of  five 
sons  who  have  died  gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle. 
I  feel  how  weak  and  fruitless  must  be  any  words  of 
mine  which  should  attempt  to  beguile  you  from  a 
loss  so  overwhelming.  But  I  cannot  refrain  from  ten 
dering  to  you  the  consolation  that  may  be  found  in 
the  thanks  of  the  republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray 
that  our  Heavenly  Father  may  assuage  the  anguish 
of  your  bereavement,  and  leave  you  only  the  cher 
ished  memory  of  the  loved  and  lost,  and  the  solemn 
pride  that  must  be  yours  to  have  laid  so  costly  a  sacri 
fice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom." 

The  quaint  and  humorous  drollery  which  characterized  him 
throughout  life,  and  which,  at  the  outset  of  his  national  career. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  119 

often  provoked  the  sarcasm  of  offended  dignity,  was  but  the 
alloy  that  strengthened  his  fine  nature  for  the  discharge  of 
duties  and  responsibilities  else  too  heavy  to  be  borne,  and 
though  his  humor  sometimes  bordered  on  coarseness  or  in 
delicacy,  this  was  but  the  dross  in  a  character  whose  substance 
was  otherwise  of  purest  gold. 

While  traitors  were  secretly  plotting  or  openly  attempting 
the  destruction  of  the  Union,  while  the  shafts  of  calumny  from 
foes,  and  carping  criticism  from  those  who  should  have  been 
friends,  were  falling  thick  around  him,  under  the  weight  of 
burdens  and  vexations  seemingly  too  grievous  to  be  borne,  he 
cherished  no  malice  in  his  heart,  his  lips  gave  utterance  to  no 
abuse.  Believing  in  the  justice  of  God,  and  basing  his  con 
duct  upon  principles  that  antedated  the  decalogue  and  will  sur 
vive  the  wreck  of  human  laws  and  constitutions,  he  wrought  in 
faith  and  patience  to  the  end,  and  so  he  came  to  be  the  em 
bodiment  of  the  regenerated  brain,  heart  and  conscience  of  the 
nation. 

And  yet  you  shall  search  the  pages  of  history  in  vain  for 
a  parallel  to  the  national  career  of  seven  swift,  eventful 
years  which  transformed  the  unknown  Illinois  politician  into 
the  foremost  figure  of  his  century.  If  we  would  learn  the 
secret  of  that  social  alchemy  by  which  the  son  of  the  Ken 
tucky  pioneer,  reared  in  the  narrow  circle  of  frontier  priva 
tion,  became  the  ruler  whose  sagacious  leadership  in  the  crisis 
of  the  republic  withstood  the  criticism  of  statesmen  and  sav 
ants,  and  won  the  lasting  homage  of  mankind,  may  we  not  find 
its  solution  in  that  immortal  sentence  of  his,  which  was  ex 
pressed  in  every  act  of  that  earnest,  patient,  sagacious  life : 
"Let  us  have  faith  that  right  makes  might,  and  in  that  faith 
let  us,  to  the  end,  dare  to  do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it." 

The  century  opened  with  peans  of  acclaim  to  Napoleon, 
"the  man  of  destiny,"  beneath  whose  tread  the  continent  of 
Europe  quaked  for  twenty  years.  The  century  is  drawing  to 
its  close,  and,  in  the  sculptured  pomp  of  his  stately  tomb  upon 
the  Seine,  beneath  the  purple  dome  of  the  Hotel  des  Invalides, 
amid  the  marble  emblems  of  his  victories  and  surrounded  by 
his  battle  flags,  the  great  emperor  sleeps  in  the  icy  calm  of 
death.  The  empire  which  he  founded  has  vanished  like  the 
figment  of  a  dream.  But  the  republic  of  Washington  and  Lin 
coln  endures.  The  bond  of  Union,  though  strained  by  civil  warr 


120  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

was  yet  strong  enough  to  withstand  the  test,  and  from  ocean 
to  ocean,  and  from  Jake  to  gulf,  the  arms  that  once  were  raised 
to  strike  are  now  outstretched  to  shield.  The  race  whose  tri 
umphal  and  civilizing  march  has  known  no  halt  from  Plymouth 
Rock  to  the  Philippines,  as  in  the  past,  so  in  the  present,  and 
in  all  the  days  to  come,  true  to  the  precepts  of  the  founders 
and  saviors  of  the  republic,  within  the  limits  of  its  constitution, 
will  accept  the  duties  and  responsibilities  imposed  by  Provi 
dence,  and  without  fear  or  faltering,  march  on  to  the  fulfill 
ment  of  its  high  and  continuing  destiny. 

He  who  seeks  the  embodiment  of  the  genius  of  the  Union 
finds  it  in  the  apotheosis  of  the  Great  Emancipator.  There, 
under  the  arching  skies  he  stands,  erect,  serene,  resplendent; 
beneath  his  feet  the  broken  shackles  of  a  race  redeemed;  upon 
his  brow  the  diadem  of  liberty  with  law,  while  around  and  be 
hind  him  rise  up,  as  an  eternal  guard  of  honor,  the  great  army 
of  the  republic. 

In  the  belief  that  from  the  martyr's  bier  as  from  the  battle 
field  of  right,  it  is  but  one  step  to  paradise,  may  we  not,  on 
days  like  this,  draw  back  the  veil  that  separates  from  our  mor 
tal  gaze  the  phantom  squadrons  as  they  pass  again  in  grand 
review  before  their  "martyr  president." 

"In  solid  platoons  of  steel, 

Under  heaven's  triumphant  arch, 
The  long  lines  break  and  wheel, 

And  the  order  is  "Forward,  March !" 
The  colors  ripple  o'erhead, 

The  drums  roll  up  to  the  sky, 
And  with  martial  time  and  tread 

The  regiments  all  pass  by— 
The  ranks  of  the  faithful  dead 

Meeting  their  president's  eye. 
March  on,  your  last  brave  mile ! 

Salute  him,  star  and  lace! 
Form  'round  him,  rank  and  file, 

And  look  on  the  kind,  rough  face. 
But  the  quaint  and  homely  smile 

Has  a  glory  and  a  grace 
It  has  never  known  erstwhile, 

Never  in  time  or  space. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  121 

Close  'round  him,  hearts  of  pride ! 
Press  near  him,  side  by  side ! 

For  he  stands  there  not  alone. 
For  the  holy  right  ye  died, 
And  Christ,  the  crucified, 

AYaits  to  welcome  his  own." 


122  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


TYPICAL  AMERICANS. 

BY   CAPT.   HENRY  A.   CASTLE,   EX-POSTMASTER,   ST.   PAUL. 
(Read  February  12,  1901.) 


To  develop  a  high  average  in  man  is  the  noblest  work  of  civiliza 
tion. 

The  advancement  of  a  race  is  only  real  when  it  reaches  all  social 
strata,  pervading  the  classes  and  the  masses,  steadily  elevating, 
energizing,  fructifying  the  entire  population. 

The  capacity  of  a  people  to  evolve  constantly  improving  types  of 
humanity  is  the  final  test  of  greatness.  That  nation  will  win  su 
premacy  which  has  the  most  highly  developed  average  man  and 
makes  of  him  an  aspiring  citizen.  The  average  man  has  not, 
until  recently,  been  a  factor  in  the  world;  nowhere  today  is  he 
so  important  a  factor  as  in  our  own  proud  and  happy  land. 
He  has  ceased  to  make  an  abtuse  angle  of  himself  before  rank 
and  privilege;  he  has  begun  to  inhale  fresh  ozone  of  the  brand 
that  stiffens  spines;  he  has  learned  that  the  constitution  always 
follows  the  flag — sooner  or  later — and  he  believes  in  both. 

Clasped  in  the  embrace  of  golden  centuries  that  gave  model  and 
masterpiece  of  art,  poetry,  philosophy,  laws,  and  eloquence,  lie  the 
shining  annals  of  queenly  Athens  and  exultant  Rome.  But  viewed 
from  our  long  focal  distance  how  provincial,  how  isolated,  how 
evanescent.  The  "higher  classes"  were  luxurious,  but  the  common 
people  had  fewer  comforts  than  the  beasts  that  perish-  Freedom 
and  civilization  starved  because  they  thrust  no  rootlets  into  the  popu 
lar  intellect.  Even  the  tidings  of  those  glories  and  achievements 
scarcely  reached  beyond  the  walls  of  cities  which  girt  the  Mediter 
ranean  like  a  constellation. 

That  progress  only  is  genuine  which  reaches  and  illumines  man 
kind  in  general — the  average  man.  Civilizations  of  the  past  rich  as 
they  were  in  specific  features,  were  local ;  their  blessings  touched 
only  the  smallest  circles.  Two  hundred  years  elapsed  before  the 
common  people  of  Europe  knew  that  America  had  been  discovered. 
Knowledge  lay  in  a  state  of  arrested  incubation.  Ages  rolled  on, 
while  simple  inventions  slowly  broke  their  way  through  crusts  of 
ignorance  to  the  hand  and  home  of  the  toiler. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  123 

All  this  is  changed.  While  kings  have  shriveled  and  potentates 
have  shrunken,  mankind  has  expanded.  Some  things  are  wrong 
and  rotten  still,  for  civilization,  like  beauty,  is  often  only  paint-deep. 
But  the  average  man  in  physical  and  intellectual  vigor,  in  culture  and 
character  has  throughout  Christendom  been  wondrously  exalted. 

Our  people  enjoy  their  full  allotment  of  this  exaltation.  Else 
where  development  and  aspiration  are  militant,  here  they  are  tri 
umphant — permeated  and  dominated  by  a  spirit  of  aggressive,  pro 
gressive,  belligerent,  defiant  Americanism.  This  spirit  has  extended 
our  sphere  of  influence  until  it  reaches  from  Ursa  Major  to  the  plane 
of  the  ecliptic;  it  has  made  aurora  borealis  a  familiar  domestic  pro- 
uct  and  narrowed  the  Pacific  ocean  into  an  American  lake.  The 
average  American  is  the  highest  type  the  world  now  holds  or  ever 
has  seen.  So  long  as  we  maintain  this  pre-eminence  we  can  trust 
ourselves  to  lead  in  the  march  of  history. 

A  sublime  faith  in  our  country  and  our  countrymen  has  directed 
the  policies  of  the  last  three  memorable  years.  It  guided  and  in 
spired  our  voiceless  comrade,  companion,  friend,  the  ideal  American 
statesman,  the  pride  of  our  commonwealth,  a  pillar  of  the  nation,  of 
whose  wondrous  deeds  we  can  now  only  speak  from  the  depths  of  a 
bleeding  affection.  His  every  heart-beat  throbbed  with  this  cour 
ageous  confidence.  It  led  his  unfaltering  steps  up  the  imperial 
heights  of  destiny  as  the  shepherds  of  old  were  led  by  the  radiance 
of  Bethlehem's  beckoning  star. 

A  crowning  beneficence  of  our  position,  the  unerring  prophecy 
of  a  hopeful  future,  is  the  significant  fact  that  from  the  ranks  of 
our  average  man,  from  the  mass  of  our  intelligent  citizenship,  every 
crisis  calls  forth  leaders  equal  to  the  heaviest  demand — built  up  i.y 
the  moulding  hand  of  free  institutions,  stalwart  and  heroic,  formed 
for  the  supreme  emergency.  We  have  discarded  the  pauper-made 
pedigrees  of  Europe.  From  the  homes  of  the  people,  from  condi 
tions  even  less  favorable  than  the  lot  of  the  average  men  of  their 
time,  have  sprung  the  consummate  figures  of  our  nation's  annals, 
our  two  transcendent  typical  Americans. 

The  luminous  career  of  one  spanned  all  the  decades  of  the 
eighteenth  century — the  other's  splendid  deeds  have  made  the  nine 
teenth  century  memorable,  and  the  day  we  celebrate  sacred  to 
patriotism  forever.  Each  was  an  august  embodiment  of  the  Repuh  • 
lie;  into  every  thread  of  its  fabric  their  lives  are  woven,  on  every 
flutter  of  its  flag  their  genius  shines. 

Our  colonial  and  revolutionary  eras,  with  the  formative  years 


124  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

of  the  federal  government  glisten  with  illustrious  names  all  more 
than  worthy  the  deathless  fame  so  grandly  won.  But  it  is  not  on 
the  story  of  Adams  or  Hamilton  or  Jefferson  or  Pickering  or  Madi 
son  or  Jay  or  Putnam  we  will  dwell  to-night.  Nor  even  on  that 
of  immortal  Washington,  of  whom  our  speech  can  be  clothed  only 
in  garments  of  profoundest  reverence — unsullied  be  his  renown  on 
the  tongues  of  men  and  angels  until  time  shall  be  no  more ! 

Above  any  or  all  of  these  in  splendor  of  intellect,  versatility  of 
attainment  and  achievement,  effective  public  service,  was  the  sfates- 
man,  diplomat,  inventor,  philosopher,  patriot,  printer,  the  original 
Yankee,  the  first  typical  American,  Benjamin  Franklin. 

Washington,  soldier  and  hero,  the  wealthiest  citizen  of  the  col 
onies,  aristocratic,  and  justly  proud,  a  Virginian  of  the  third  gen 
eration,  was  a  modified  Englishman;  Franklin,  cradled  in  penury, 
the  son  of  an  immigrant,  was  in  every  throb  and  fiber  and  tissue  an 
unadulterated  American. 

********* 

Benjamin  Franklin  was  the  splendid  typical  American  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Had  this  nation  produced  none  worthy  to 
stand  beside  him,  he  alone  would  have  superbly  vindicated  the  type 
and  its  potentialities.  But  the  nineteenth  century  came,  bringing 
new  vicissitudes,  environments,  requirements.  The  nineteenth  cen 
tury  brought  its  own  crisis  and  it  likewise  brought  a  man  for  the 
crisis — Abraham  Lincoln. 

He  was  the  second  distinctive,  colossal,  typical  American. 
Genius  is  common-sense  intesified;  a  typical  American  is  an 
average  man  exapnded  and  crystallized.  As  to  some  features  of 
character  and  career  Franklin  and  Lincoln  were  strikingly  similar, 
yet  the  differences  were  marked  and  decisive.  Each  was  an  apothe 
osis  of  the  average  man.  Each  was  a  born  child  of  the  people, 
raised  by  self  culture  to  a  stature  unsurpassed  among  mortals. 
Each  was  a  man  of  the  people  without  a  trace  of  demagoguery. 
Each  was  framed  for  his  high  calling  by  the  imperious  mandate  of 
nature  and  surroundings ;  both  were  in  every  trait  and  tendency  and 
texture  unquestionably  American.  Their  endowments  were  essen 
tially  practical  and  real,  but  with  finest  backgrounds  of  the  ideal 
and  full  equipment  for  exalted  trust.  That  they  were  recognized 
and  trusted  and  exalted  is  a  crowning  vindication  of  Republicanism. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  the  state  of  Kentucky  in  1809. 
less  than  twenty  years  after  Franklin  died.  He  was  of  obscure 
ancestry,  and  was  cradled  amid  the  rudest  rusticities  of  life  on  a 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  125 

raw  frontier.  The  sum  total  of  his  attendance  at  school  was  less 
than  twelve  months.  Much  of  his  childhood  was  spent  in  a  cabin 
of  logs,  with  no  floor  or  door  or  window,  without  stove  or  fur 
niture  or  utensil  more  elaborate  than  a  kettle,  a  skillet,  and  a  bench. 

Lincoln  as  a  youth,  untrained  in  polite  society ;  clad  in  coarsest, 
most  meagre  garments,  tow  trousers  fifteen  inches  too  short,  coon- 
skin  cap,  bare  feet,  face  browned  from  exposure  and  hands  calloused 
with  toil,  was  an  unpromising  boulder  out  of  which  to  carve  the 
conventional  hero.  But  strength  of  body  and  mind  dwelt  in  him, 
which  among  his  compeers  brought  a  primacy  grateful,  perhaps,  as 
his  later  honors.  He  was  first  in  all  athletic  games ;  he  was  leader 
in  race  and  wrestle;  more  than  all  he  owned  half  a  dozen  books, 
read  them  with  avidity,  absorbed  them  completely  and  built  his  men 
tal  structure  around  them.  Reading  ^Esop's  fables  by  the  light  from 
a  fire-place  was  his  recreation,  his  theater,  opera  and  lecture  rolled 
into  one.  He  grew  to  be  a  backwoods  prodigy  in  knowledge  as  in 
feats  of  strength  and  agility. 

Lincoln  as  a  Farmer,  a  Boatman  and  a  Clerk  brought  his  early 
manhood  into  relation  with  varied  elements  of  useful  activity.  His 
faculties  were  quickened,  his  horizon  was  widened,  his  experiences 
were  multiplied,  and  practical  information  was  garnered  for  later 
years.  At  New  Orleans  he  saw  the  cruelties  of  human  slavery  and 
where  the  atmosphere  was  filled,  with  the  suffocating  fumes  of  its 
apologists,  he  registered  a  holy  vow  to  smite  it  always  and  smite 
it  hard. 

Lincoln  as  a  Soldier  served  one  short  eventless  campaign  in  the 
Blackhawk  war  of  1831,  stimulating  his  appreciation  of  discipline 
and  strengthening,  as  captain  of  a  company  of  fellow  townsmen, 
his  attributes  of  leadership. 

Lincoln  the  Legislator  helped  to  frame  the  codes  he  was  destined 
so  ably  to  expound,  and  contributed  to  the  earliest  development 
of  resources  which  have  since  made  his  adopted  State,  imnerial 
Illinois,  the  third  commonwealth  of  the  Union.  He  did  not  serve 
at  a  period  when  the  railroad  magnate  feels  obliged  to  own  and 
operate  two  or  more  State  Legislatures  as  a  feature  of  his  system, 
but  in  that  day  of  relatively  small  things  he  made  a  creditable  rec 
ord. 

Lincoln  the  Lawyer  was  noted  for  his  adherence  to  highest 
conceptions  of  the  dignity  of  his  chosen  profession.  He  held  it 
to  be  the  duty  of  the  bar  to  aid  the  court  in  administering  justice. 
Lucid  argument,  even  grace  of  diction  and  oratory  were  his  instru- 


126  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

ments  in  presenting  the  law  and  facts  of  each  case  for  the  better  in 
formation  of  judge  and  jury.  His  logical  power,  merciless  as  the 
erosion  of  a  glacier,  was  never  consciously  used  to  mislead  the  one ; 
his  gifts  of  impassioned  eloquence  were  not  employed  to  befog  or 
deceive  the  other.  He  never  sought  to  beguile  men  into  the  treat 
ment  of  an  incurable  disease  with  an  infallible  remedy.  He  rose 
to  merited  eminence  in  regular  practice  before  courts  presided  over 
by  the  ablest  jurists.  He  established  a  reputation  for  capacity,  prob 
ity,  and  learning,  upon  which  rests  no  stain  of  unfaithfulness  to 
clients  or  treachery  to  truth. 

Lincoln  the  Patriot  nursed  in  the  growth  of  anti-slavery  agita 
tion;  aroused  by  its  appeals;  tossed  in  its  storms  and  fired  by  the 
lightnings  of  its  rage,  became  an  active  champion  of  the  nation's 
awakening  conscience  voiced  in  a  swelling  clamor*  for  free  press, 
free  speech,  free  soil,  free  men.  A  new  evangel  came  to  stir  men's 
souls ;  he  was  its  early  apostle ;  he  finally  became  its  prophet,  seer  and 
sage,  its  martyr  and  its  canonized  hero.  As  has  been  truly  said,  he 
combined  the  faith  of  Abraham,  the  leadership  of  Moses,  the  cour 
age  of  Leonidas,  the  mental  vigor  of  Paul,  the  integrity  of  Crom 
well  and  the  patriotism  of  Washington.  That  patriotism  was  more 
than  a  sentiment — it  was  an  animating,  overmastering  spiritual 
possession.  From  him  and  his  co-laborers  it  flowed  out  into  the 
souls  of  their  countrymen  until  the  mighty  North  was  leavened 
with  their  spirit  and  inspired  by  their  zeal. 

Lincoln  the  Leader,  was  evolved  by  natural  selection-  From 
inconspicuous  beginnings  he  steadily  grew  to  be  the  acclaimed 
tribune  of  the  people.  By  the  force  of  his  ability  and  character  he 
embodied  all  the  conditions  around  him,  until  he  become  an  in 
carnation  of  their  loftiest  aims.  Rugged  and  massive  he  was, 
surely  not  fair  and  smooth  to  look  upon,  yet  with  an  imposing 
personality  as  the  future  will  idealize  him.  Rugged,  massive  and 
imposing  he  was,  but  not  inert.  There  were  internal  fires  to  fuse 
this  ruggedness;  there  was  an  expansive  soul  that  elevated  this 
massiveness  and  made  it  majestic.  His  leadership  was  not  of  the 
larynx  and  lungs  variety,  ever  ready  to  clothe  itself  in  asbestos  and 
umpire  the  conflagration  of  a  planet ;  it  was  neither  rant  nor  malev 
olence  nor  incendiarism.  It  was  conservatism  personified,  steadi 
ness  energized,  determination  sublimated. 

Lincoln  the  Orator  displayed  intellectual  gifts  of  the  highest 
range.  His  collected  addresses  and  State  papers  form  a  classic 
which  has  no  superior  in  our  prolific  language.  They  are  the  clear 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  127 

flowing  utterance  of  an  affluent  mind,  wanned  by  the  sanctifying 
impulse  of  profound  conviction.  The  inimitable  words  at  Gettys 
burg  have  given  to  that  hallowed  ground  increased  sanctity  as  a 
shrine  of  pilgrimage  for  Earth's  rejoicing  children. 

Lincoln  the  President,  the  central  figure  of  Time's  most  awful 
tragedy,  stepped  forth  with  modest  manliness,  solemnly  assumed 
his  burden  and  bore  it  royally,  yet  meekly  until  he  died.  Confronted 
with  perils  and  problems  unprecedented,  he  stood  on  the  shifting 
quicksands  of  a  disintegrating  government,  a  rustic  politician  out  of 
the  West  with  no  clientage  even  among  his  party  associates.  He  was 
compassed  about  with  perplexities  innumerable.  His  cabinet  was 
strange  and  discordant,  its  members  distrustful  of  him  and  of  each 
other;  the  treasury  was  empty  and  the  public  credit  paralyzed. 
Foreign  nations  were  openly  hostile;  domestic  traitors  infested 
every  executive  department,  polluted  the  courts  and  distracted  Con 
gress.  He  rose  to  the  tremendous  responsibility.  He  was  tactful 
and  discreet;  always  growing;  always  moving  with  a  self-sufficing 
self-reliance  that  is  modesty  enthroned.  He  met  every  emergency 
as  it  came  and  controlled  it.  He  guided  diplomacy,  finance,  and 
internal  policies.  Friends  abandoned  him;  political  conspirators 
plotted  his  overthrow,  but  he  was  firm,  patient,  consistent,  neither 
speaking  thoughtlessly  nor  acting  with  rashness.  In  every  branch 
of  statesmanship  he  was  easily  master  of  his  colleagues  and  the 
occasion.  He  piloted  the  ark  of  man's  last  hope  through  all  menac 
ing  breakers  until  it  anchored  safely  in  the  haven  of  deliverance. 

Lincoln  the  Commander,  unversed  in  military  lore,  speedily  dis 
closed  instincts  of  generalship  and  genius  for  command.  War  en 
vironed  him  with  swift,  remorseless  fury;  his  communications  were 
cut  off  and  his  capital  beleagured;  forts  and  shipyards  had  been 
treacherously  surrendered ;  arms  had  been  stolen  and  vessels  scat 
tered  ;  trusted  officers  of  the  army  and  navy  forswore  their  alle 
giance  and  deserted  to  the  foe.  From  the  mines  and  forests  navies 
were  created :  from  the  farms  and  schools  and  workshops,  enormous 
armies  were  drawn.  Leaders  were  evolved,  campaigns  \vere  planned 
battles  were  fought  and  unsurpassed  victories  won.  The  soldiers  of 
the  Union,  under  his  unrelaxing  guidance,  captured  forts  and 
armies,  seaports  and  citadels  and  capitals,  senates  and  cabinets  and 
presidents ;  they  conquered  States,  crushed  rebellion  and  built 
around  the  rescued  nation  an  impregnable  rampart  of  freedom. 

Lincoln  the  Emancipator,  appeals  most  vividly  to  the  imagina 
tions  of  men.  Slavery's  doom  had  been  rung  on  the  celestial  chimes. 


128  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

It  was  due  to  perish  because  the  nineteenth  century  had  come ;  be 
cause  the  free  school,  the  newspaper  and  the  open  Bible  had  come; 
because  the  flying  engine  and  the  speaking  wire  had  come;  because 
Wilberforce  and  Garrison  and  Harriet  Stowe  had  come;  because 
Seward  and  Stanton  and  Sumner  had  come ;  because  Grant  and 
Sherman  and  Sheridan  had  come;  because  two  million  boys  in 
blue  had  come — above  all,  because  the  great  and  terrible  day  of 
wrath  had  come.  These  myriad  influences  spoke  with  Lincoln's 
voice  and  struck  with  his  resolute  arm.  He  seemed  slow  as  he  led 
public  opinion  by  marching  abreast,  but  he  struck  hard.  In  August, 
1862,  a  zealous  war-governor  telegraphed:  "Hurl  the  thunder 
bolt  of  Emancipation  and  Illinois  will  again  leap  like  a  flaming  giant 
into  the  fight."  The  characteristic  reply  was  flashed  back:  "Rich 
ard,  possess  thou  thy  soul  in  patience  stand  by  and  see  the  salvation 
of  the  Lord."  One  month  later  the  thunderbolt  was  hurled.  Loyal 
Illinois  had  meanwhile  sent  seventy  new  regiments  to  the  front;  a 
great  battle  had  been  gained :  the  time  was  ripe  and  Lincoln  was 
ready. 

Lincoln  the  Devout  was  the  self-confessed  instrument  of  an  ir 
resistible,  overruling  power.  His  religion  was  neither  that  of  noisy 
pretence,  ever  audible  to  the  naked  ear,  nor  of  pure  formalism, 
mere  pomp  and  circumstance,  signifying  nothing.  It  was  a  sober, 
indwelling  faith,  a  silent,  introspective  veneration.  In  his  coun 
tenance  the  gloom  of  nature,  the  hardship  of  early  struggles,  the 
agony  of  unuttered  sorrows  and  remorseless  pressure  of  official 
care,  had  chiselled  their  pathetic  furrows.  But  through  them 
gleamed  the  light  of  a  dimless  sincerity.  He  was  supremely  honest. 
Honesty  is  the  best  policy  when  the  amount  involved  is  small — but 
it  is  the  best  principle  always  and  everywhere.  Lincoln  was  honest 
from  principle.  He  was  the  "honest  old  Abe"  of  admiring  con 
temporaries;  his  was  the  inarticulate  religion  of  a  reverent,  contrite 
soul. 

Lincoln  the  Martyr,  walked  in  the  path  which  duty  had  marked 
for  his  weary,  aching  steps,  until,  from  under  the  assassin's  hand, 
his  labor  done,  his  honors  gained,  Gocl  called  and  crowned  him. 
He  had  a  recompense  in  bringing  to  his  country  more  perfect  liberty 
and  brighter  human  hopes.  Then  his  blood  mingled  with  that  of 
scores  of  thousands  of  nameless  youthful  victims  to  form  the  price 
less  libation  in  which  the  finger  of  the  Almighty  baptized  mankind 
to  a  new  birth  of  freedom  immaculate  and  imperishable. 

O  Lincoln  of  Today,  illustrious,  immortal !     How  superbly 


LINCOLN     MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  129 

he  looms,  as  with  long  arms  folded  in  statuesque  dignity,  he  calmly 
fronts  the  scrutiny  of  the  ages.  He  is  the  world's  unquenchable 
prophet  of  hope,  lifted  already  to  such  eminence  that  the  aggregated 
effulgence  of  all  the  kings  and  emperors  of  earth  for  a  thousand 
years  pales  in  the  luster  of  his  rising  fame. 

And  Lincoln  of  the  Better  Days  to  Come!  He  will  stand  as 
the  embodiment  of  his  time,  his  transfigured  character,  like  a  shin 
ing  sphere  of  crystal,  embosoming  the  heart  and  kernel  of  the  cause 
he  typified.  And  with  him  the  disciples  of  that  sacred  cause,  the 
heroic  living  and  the  sainted  dead,  admonish  us  to  assume  their 
task  and  complete  their  triumphs.  Lincoln  will  sweep  and  swing 
through  the  chronicles  of  futurity,  and  into  his  grandeur  will  at  last 
be  merged  all  the  service  and  sacrifice  that  contributed  to  make  his 
era  conspicuous.  He  wrought  mightily,  he  toiled  terribly,  but  he 
was  grandly  and  loyally  upheld.  Long  and  lustrous  is  the  battle  roll 
of  those  who  smote  and  stood  and  held  the  hope  of  unborn  mil 
lions  amid  the  tempests  of  a  thousand  flaming  fields.  From  highest 
to  lowest  they  were  soldiers  of  the  flag — one  in  purpose  and  one 
in  honor.  The  legacy  of  their  deeds  is  the  priceless  possession  of 
America's  successive  generations.  Let  it  suffice  that  all  the  blood 
and  tears  and  prayers  of  the  bitter  contest  are  fused  in  Heaven's 
alembic  into  one  imperishable  splendor,  and  fixed  in  the  zenith  of 
the  Republic's  deathless  diadem. 

If  there  be  any  who  question  the  sacredness  of  Lincoln's  cause  or 
the  completeness  of  its  triumph,  the  survivors  of  that  struggle  may 
exultantly  leave  the  decision  to  time,  to  God,  and  to  history.  Our 
comrades  did  not  die  in  vain.  All  that  is  best  that  the  twentieth 
century  inherits  is  the  purchase  of  their  blood ;  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic  and  the  Loyal  Legion  are  custodians  of  their  stain 
less  memory.  An  enlightened  patriotism  in  the  South  will  one 
day  grind  to  tongueless  dust  the  memorials  which  mistaken  zeal  is 
now  raising  to  forgiven  error,  while  the  humblest  veteran  of  the 
Union  is  hailed  as  a  priest  in  the  temple  of  freedom,  a  prince  in 
the  kingdom  of  glory.  Shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  a  later  war,  our 
sons  marched  with  the  sons  of  Confederates  under  the  flag  \ve 
mercifully  saved  for  them,  and  fought  for  the  land  we  made  wonh 
defending.  Side  by  side  their  descendants  and  ours  will  stand,  as 
they  work  out  the  mysteries  of  the  unknowable  future,  until  the 
purpling  borders  of  their  enlarged  horizon  will  be  brightened  by 
the  smile  of  Justice  as  she  comes  to  reign  over  all  the  earth,  with  a 
bridal  circlet  on  her  brow  and  her  feet  in  the  dew  of  the  millennial 
morning. 


130  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

Wider  visions  of  demand  and  opportunity  are  opening  before 
UF  which  will  bring  new  vicissitudes  and  emergencies.  From  their 
broadening  fields  of  action  the  predestined  leader  will  be  called. 
The  average  American  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  the  consum 
mate  flower  of  Christian  civilization.  His  control  of  new  and 
complicated  physical  forces,  yielding  a  vast  increment  of  facilities 
for  production  and  distribution,  suggest  necessary  augmentations 
of  his  outlook  and  aggrandizement  of  his  enterprise. 

„  True  conservatism  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  eternal  verities.  But 
there  is  a  false  conservatism,  sorely  addicted  to  the  dry-rot  habit, 
which  believes  headache  is  caused  by  a  fermentation  of  new  ideas 
in  the  brain.  This  conservatism,  ultra-refined  and  over-comfort 
able,  goes  into  retreat,  rout,  and  preposterous  panic  when  it  is  pro 
posed  to  blaze  a  pathway  into  unexplored  domains,  or  even  to 
walk  bravely  in  the  footsteps  of  the  mighty  dead.  The  twentieth 
century  American  will  discard  the  pessimism  that  legislates  for  an 
open  season  of  misery  twelve  months  in  the  year,  demands  a  ple 
biscite  of  Malays  and  splits  hairs  over  the  consent  of  the  governed. 
He  will  ignore  the  preachers  and  breeders  of  disaster  who  rejoice 
with  retroactive  glee  in  multiplications  of  woe — brambles  in  the 
highway,  drouth  in  the  field,  murrain  in  the  flock,  glanders  in  the 
stable,  rabies  in  the  kennel,  famine  in  the  kitchen,  pestilence  in  the 
chamber,  blasphemy  in  the  soul,  and  hatred  in  the  heart. 

There  is  abundant  ground  for  faith  in  a  permanent  and  sover 
eign  force  running  through  all  the  processes  of  our  national  growth 
that  will  meet  the  exigencies  of  coming  years.  The  optimism  of 
Franklin,  the  sad,  stern  hopefulness  of  Lincoln  enfolded  this  faith 
as  a  perpetual  benediction.  That  force  will  go  on,  age  after  age, 
"building  statelier  mansions,  far  beyond  our  past  vision  and  present 
thought.  It  will  fashion  for  the  average  American  type  men  and 
women  nobler  than  the  world  has  ever  seen,  moulding  and  blending 
from  all  sections  a  cultivated  homogenous  race;  rich,  inventive, 
productive,  materialistic  beyond  the  dream  of  prophet  or  hope  of 
sage,  yet  endowed  with  conscience,  morals  and  spiritual  attributes 
which  are  the  only  pledge  against  decay. 

Into  what  a  vast  amphitheater  for  the  exercise  of  all  his  powers 
has  the  twentieth  century  been  placed  by  recent  world-embracing 
events — how  miraculously  the  sphere  has  been  broadened  wherein 
it  is  permissible,  nay  mandatory  that  man  shall  die  for  man !  There 
are  in  current  tendencies,  at  home  and  abroad,  ample  incentives 
for  the  enlargement  of  every  human  activity.  Since  Lincoln  died 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

there  have  been  in  all  civilized  nations  manifest  irresistible  move 
ments  toward  a  concentration  of  governmental  power  in  the  in 
terest  of  personal  liberty.  Governments  are  stronger  but  the  people 
are  more  free.  Today  there  are  visible  movements  for  a  concen 
tration  of  the  resources  of  capital  for  the  advancement  of  individual 
prosperity.  Pessimism  saw  no  good  in  the  one  tendency  and  sees 
only  evil  in  the  other,  but  the  destiny-thwarter,  though  voiced 
like  the  letting  go  of  air-brakes,  has  small  success  against  the  in 
evitable.  Oppressions  and  distress  accompany  such  processes,  but 
if  benefit  does  not  finally  result,  all  teachings  of  history  are  false 
and  maxims  of  philosophy  delusive. 

We  can  hazard  no  detailed  predictions  the  kaleidoscope  of  des 
tiny  shifts  with  strange  and  awrful  suddenness.  We  can  not  fore 
cast  policies  even  for  the  day  after  tomorrow.  We  can  rely  on 
the  ingrained,  salutary  conservatism  of  our  progressive  people  to 
prevent  too  rapid  advancement,  for  all  the  tendencies  of  our  prog 
ress  are  beneficent,  and  God  over  all  reigneth  forever.  We  will 
advance  with  safety  toward  the  goal  of  prosperity  and  happiness 
for  three  hundred  millions  of  twentieth  century  Americans. 

Who  will  be  the  typical  American  of  the  twentieth  century? 
We  can  not  tell.  We  only  know  that  he  will  not  spring  from  the 
emasculated  and  invertebrate  classes,  cultured  beyond  the  limita 
tion  of  their  intellect  and  ashamed  of  the  country  where  they  con 
descended  to  be  born.  And  this  we  steadfastly  believe — that  the 
examples  of  Franklin  and  Lincoln  are  not  lost,  nor  has  the  power 
of  reproducing  their  like  from  the  ranks  of  its  plain  average  citi 
zenship,  perished  in  the  land  they  established  and  regenerated. 
War,  we  may  hope,  is  nearly  obsolete — it  has  become  largely  a 
matter  of  mechanical  skill  and  finance,  modified  by  woman's  new 
prerogative  to  register  shrill,  effective  expostulations  against  ex 
posure  and  suffering.  But  there  are  perils  and  problems  to  be  en 
countered  still. 

/Let  us  banish  distrust  and  eliminate  pessimism — here  in  the 
golden  heart  of  the  continent  must  be  the  nurturing  home  of  Hope; 
amid  the  amplitude  and  prodigality  of  this  fresh  national  life  there 
is  no  room  for  hideous  dolor  and  highly  oxygenated  phases  of 
despair.  The  gifted  charlatan  whose  view  is  bounded  by  the  roofs 
of  his  little  college  town  on  the  country's  Eastern  waterfront  is 
too  much  in  evidence  in  that  region.  He  is  profoundly  convinced 
that  laws  can  be  framed  and  constitutions  interpreted  only  by  a 
small  circle  of  Latin  experts  with  impaired  digestion.  He  is  shelled 


132  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

in  a  dwarfing,  withering  isolation.  He  is  still  content  to  pose  as  a 
European  lay  figure,  and  has  only  the  faintest  conception  of  the  real 
spirit,  functions  and  resources  of  the  Republic.  He  will  profit  by 
a  patient  search  for  the  star  of  empire.  Here  in  ths  breezy  an  1 
buoyant  new  Northwest;  on  her  teeming  and  boundless  prairies; 
by  the  banks  of  her  amazing  rivers;  in  the  midst  of  her  million- 
acred  harvests — here  can  the  fullest  inspiration  of  our  national  mag 
nificence  be  caught  and  assimilated.  This  favored  region  of  which 
Franklin  never  heard  and  which  Lincoln  but  dimly  discerned,  is  the 
nursery  of  high  impulse,  tireles  activity,  and  unconquerable  trust. 

Here  is  the  New  England  of  tomorrow,  the  Yankee  land  of 
the  twentieth  century.  New  York  may  cultivate  snobs  and  inter 
breed  social  degenerates  to  the  limit;  Boston  provincialism  may 
gnaw  a  file  and  mumble  well-modulated  sneers  through  broken 
teeth — Minneapolis  will  be  the  modern  Athens;  the  ultimate  Amer 
ican  metropolis  will  rise  and  reign  resplendent  on  the  shores  of 
Puget  sound.  Six  states  of  the  upper  Mississippi  valley,  lying 
between  the  great  lakes  and  the  foothills,  have  all  prerequisites  of 
exuberant  soil,  healthful  climate,  vigorous  physical  and  intellectual 
races,  to  build  up  the  model  commonwealths  of  this  free  empire 
and  develop  the  dominating  population  of  the  continent.  He  con 
quers  in  peace  and  war  who  fights  with  the  north  wind  at  his 
back.  Favorable  climatic  conditions  will  here  mould  a  mixture 
of  the  globe's  premier  races  into  an  all-conquering  combination  of 
strength,  intelligence,  and  energy. 

The  New  England  of  the  past  is  stamped  on  all  the  elements  of 
our  progress.  Its  six  craggy,  sterile,  noble  states  have  sent  their 
sons  and  daughters,  their  laws,  their  piety,  their  tracts,  prints, 
codfish  and  college  yells  into  the  remotest  corners  of  the  Union  and 
left  them  there  as  abiding,  welcome  institutions.  The  New  Eng 
land  of  the  future,  with  broader  gauge  and  larger  resource,  will  con 
tinue  in  unstinted  flow  the  necessary  output  of  masterful,  aggres 
sive,  average  Americans. 

Franklin,  born  in  Massachusetts,  was  the  original,  character 
istic,  legitimate  Yankee ;  Lincoln,  born  near  the  Ohio  river,  was 
reviled  and  lampooned  as  the  Yankee  president.  The  term  carries 
no  stigma  now,  and  the  sons  of  the  new  Northwest  will  wear 
their  patent  of  nobility. 

We  may  confidently  leave  American  of  the  twentieth  century  in 
the  hands  of  her  average  citizens.  When  a  crisis  comes,  from 
their  ranks  will  step  out  the  typical  American,  with  an  equipment 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  133 

we  can  but  darkly  imagine,  to  face  responsibilities  we  can  not  pos 
sibly  foresee.  Beyond  that  we  seek  not  to  penetrate  the  veil.  Per 
haps  the  enrolling  ages  will  shrivel  our  annals  to  a  dot  on  history's 
page ;  fresher  splendors  may  throw  our  epoch  into  blank,  unbroken 
shadow;  Saxon  speech  may  linger  only  on  the  tongues  of  learned 
and  listless  aliens — even  then  the  names  of  Franklin  and  Lincoln 
will  survive,  to  make  luminous  the  centuries  which  gave  them  birch 
and  preserve  the  traditions  of  popular  freedom  in  the  majesty  of 
their  consecrated  character. 

We  read  in  the  legends  of  Scotland  that  when  Robert  Bruce 
passed  away,  his  heart  was  preserved  in  a  golden  urn,  which  was 
carried  as  a  standard  in  the  van  of  her  marching  hosts.  When 
the  focus  of  a  battle  was  reached  the  standard  was  advanced  and 
the  charging  clansmen  lifted  their  thrilling  war  cry :  "Lead  on, 
great  heart  of  Bruce — we  come,  we  come!" 

In  the  gladder,  grander  days  that  lie  before  us,  whether  the 
conflict  be  in  war  or  peace,  the  conquering  battalions  of  ultimate 
America  will  in  like  manner  invoke  inspiration  of  their  thronging 
pantheon  of  heroes :  "Lead  on,  exalted  spirit  of  Washington  and 
Greene  and  Putnam;  lead  on,  sacred  memory  of  Grant  and  Sher 
man  and  Stanton  and  Logan ;  lead  on,  priceless  example  of  Lawton 
and  Dewey  and  Davis  and  McKinley — Lead  on,  great  brain  of 
Franklin — Lead  on,  great  soul  of  Lincoln — We  come!  We  come! 
We  come! 


134  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY    SAMUEL   R.    VAN   SANT,   GOVERNOR   OF   MINNESOTA. 
(Read  February  12,  1901.) 


I  am  proud  to  be  a  Minnesotan.  In  our  state  Lincoln's  birih- 
clay  is  a  holiday  forever.  In  every  city,  village  and  hamlet  his 
memory  is  honored  and  his  praises  are  sung.  I  hardly  know 
whether  to  admire  most  his  marvelous  success  under  adverse  cir 
cumstances,  or  the  value  of  his  services  to  his  country  and  human 
ity.  Let  the  youth  of  the  state  and  nation  take  courage  from  his 
example.  No  boy  or  girl  so  poor  as  he;  yet  by  close  application 
to  his  studies  and  an  ever  present  desire  to  advance  in  knowledge, 
he  overcame  all  obstacles  and  in  the  end  reached  the  topmost  round 
in  the  ladder  of  fame  and  became  the  benefactor  of  his  own,  and 
freed  from  bondage  another,  race. 

Lincoln,  in  the  estimation  of  the  old  soldier,  stands  without  a 
peer  in  all  history.  No  one  has  accomplished  more,  no  one  is  more 
loved  by  those  who  fought  with  Grant  in  the  Wilderness,  marched 
with  Sherman  to  the  sea  or  rode  through  the  Valley  of  the  Shenan- 
doah  with  Sheridan. 

Lincoln  not  only  saved  the  nation,  not  only  freed  the  slave, 
but  whenever  the  time  comes  (and  may  God  speed  the  day!)  when 
the  universal  brotherhood  of  man  is  established,  it  will  be  because 
Lincoln  lived.  Our  country  has  ever  been  rich  in  great  men.  Dur 
ing  the  Revolutionary  struggle  Washington  was  the  chosen  leader, 
and  has  well  been  termed  the  father  of  his  country.  In  the  dark 
days  of  the  Rebellion  Lincoln  came,  and  surely  he  was  the  savior 
of  the  nation  as,  who  can  deny,  the  nation's  most  able  defender  was 
our  old  commander,  U.  S.  Grant.  These — Washington,  Lincoln, 
Grant,  make  a  trio  of  the  grandest  men  that  ever  lived,  and  might 
well  be  termed  "Liberty's  Trinity."  To  my  mind  Liberty's  greatest 
rnartvr  was  Abraham  Lincoln. 


LINCOLN     MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  135 


ADDRESS. 

BY    J.    S.    MONTGOMERY,    D.    D.,    PASTOR    FOWLER    METHODIST    CHURCH, 

MINNEAPOLIS. 
(Read  February  12,  1901.) 


Our  country,  our  harbors,  might  be  filled  with  ships  loaded  tor 
foreign  ports,  and  every  city  teeming  and  streaming  with  commer 
cial  industry,  and  yet  without  the  exaltation  of  our  good  men,  our 
country  would  be  poor  indeed.  God's  greatest  gift  to  our  country 
is  the  gift  of  good  men,  and  the  next  greatest  gift  to  our  country 
is  the  gift  of  a  great,  good  man.  Peter  the  Great  was  the  height 
of  Russian  civilization;  Plato  was  the  height  of  the  Grecian  mind 
and  heart.  Brave  Garibaldi  was  the  height  of  Italian  civilization, 
Napoleon  was  the  height  of  French ;  Shakespeare,  the  myriad-mind 
ed  dramatist,  and  Gladstone,  were  the  height  of  English ;  but  when 
we  come  to  the  civilization  of  the  new  world,  Abraham  Lincoln 
stands  at  its  summit. 

For  some  reason,  I  know  not  why  or  how,  this  great  character, 
presents  unto  me  an  infinitely  holy  puzzle,  even  like  that  puzzle  of 
the  Man  of  Galilee.  But  next,  I  believe,  to  the  One  who  is  God's 
only  son  there  is  not  a  greater  of  human  flesh  than  our  hero,  eman 
cipator  and  liberator.  A  school  of  hard  knocks — what  poverty, 
what  squalor,  what  want!  Yet,  somehow,  the  infinite  mind  seems 
to  smile  upon  this  boy  when  it  placed  a  ladder  in  the  mire  of  pov 
erty  somehow,  the  infinite  hand  seems  to  lead  that  American  boy 
to  the  top  of  the  ladder  to  fame  and  of  usefulness. 

I  recall  the  memorable  moment,  that  sad,  sad  hour  when  Lin 
coln,  on  Pidgeon  Creek,  Indiana,  lost  the  truest  friend  of  mortal 
man,  his  mother.  Sad  hour  when  that  boy,  six  feet  four,  clad  in 
homespun  jeans  came  down  the  little  forest  trail,  out  through  the 
opening,  and  there  hewed  down  a  maple  tree  and  cut  therefrom 
four  rude  boards  and  put  them  together.  Sad  hour  when,  the  next 
afternoon,  the  father  and  the  two  sons  bore  the  mother  to  a  lonely 
spot  at  the  foot  of  a  densely  wooded  hillside.  What  an  hour! 
What  pathos;  that  handful  of  mourners;  no  choir;  the  world  shut 
out  from  that  scene.  Yet  God's  angels  came  down  upon  the  in 
visible  spiral  stairway,  above  that  holy  ladder  God's  face  opened, 
and  a  soft,  sweet  requiem  came  from  heaven  and  the  forest  bough. 


136  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

Can  it  be  from  a  beginning  so  poor,  so  worthy  of  pity,  there 
will  come  forth  a  power  so  extensive  ?  Ah,  that  is  one  of  the  God- 
inspired  and  heaven-born  possibilities  to  men. 

Often  has  the  ocean  taught  me  a  lesson  as  I  looked  upon  its 
face.  It  has  taught  me  the  mystery  of  the  measuring  line  of  man's 
soul.  How  it  flashes  and  rushes  and  tumbles  and  rolls;  how  it 
kisses  the  shore  line  of  every  clime ;  how  it  runs  up  into  our  largest 
rivers  and  far  off  to  our  littlest  rills;  how  it  piles  up  icebergs  in 
the  Arctic  seas,  and  how  it  kisses  the  tropics  beneath  the  Southern 
sun;  how  it  thrills  in  its  depth,  and  what  a  thunder  is  there  when 
it  is  stirred.  Ah,  the  measuring  line  of  man's  soul!  When  I 
think  of  the  great  Lincoln — he  does  not  belong  to  this  race,  to  this 
clime;  the  privileges  and  the  prophesies  to  which  he  gave  new 
impetus  were  not  born  upon  this  continent,  but  yonder  upon  far 
away  Galilee's  shore  and  without  the  walls  of  old  Jerusalem,  they 
were  recorded  on  Calvary's  brow  and  made  crimson  by  the  Re 
deemer's  blood. 

Who  was  it  that  stayed  the  steps  of  Martin  Luther;  who  was 
it  that  stirred  the  angels  hiding  in  the  breast  of  Robert  Burns; 
who  struck  Milton's  lyre?  God  alone,  and  I  believe  that  Abraham 
Lincoln's  soul  was  tuned  to  the  melody  of  Almighty  God. 

Lincoln  was  as  true  and  genuine  and  simple  as  nature  itself.  He 
despised  only  one  thing,  and  that  was  doing  wrong  and,  under 
Almighty  God,  he  was  to  become  the  leader  and  giant  liberator 
of  his  race,  and  the  creator  of  a  new  civilization. 

Abraham  Lincoln  loved  his  country.  He  believed  in  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  states,  but  he  also  believed  in  the  interdependence 
of  all  the  states,  and  when  in  that  unholy  hour  brute  treason 
sprang  at  the  throat  of  fair  Columbia,  Lincoln  was  ready,  and  as 
he  put  his  ear  to  the  ground  he  heard  the  sweet  refrain,  "We  are 
coming,  Father  Abraham,  three  hundred  thousand  strong. " 

In  closing,  I  think  of  that  decade  of  1850  to  1860,  and  see 
the  causes  of  that  struggle.  Yonder  in  Boston,  the  cradle  of  lib 
erty,  were  federal  troops  for  taking  to  the  Southland  the  runaway 
slaves ;  there  was  the  Drecl  Scott  decision,  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  and 
the  insurrection  of  John  Brown.  What  a  storm  was  gathering, 
but  on  that  memorable  March  day  when  its  fury  broke  above  our 
nation,  great  Lincoln  was  ready,  and  the  country  was  ready. 

What  man  did  we  need  in  that  awful  hour?  We  must  not  have 
a  stripling,  not  an  untrained  man,  not  a  radical  man,  but  we  must 
have  a  man  who  will  lift  his  hand  in  benediction  upon  all  sections 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  137 

of  our  country;  a  man  whose  conscience  is  the  outlet  of  his  rea 
son;  a  man  who  would  stand  square  on  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  and  find  there  all  that  is  adequate  for  our  needs. 
That  man  was  found  in  Abraham  Lincoln.  Patriotism  stimulated 
him. 


138  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY   WILLIAM   G.   WHITE,   ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,    ST.    PAUL. 

(Read  February  12,  1901.) 


The  one  distinguishing  feature  of  Lincoln's  life  which  I 
think  is  the  controlling  one  marks  him  not  so  much  as  a  typical 
man  as  one  who  was  fitted  for  a  special  and  partcular  work, 
and  who  is,  in  that  sense,  different  from  the  many  men  who 
have  given  America  its  proud  position  among  the  nations  of 
the  world.  Let  me  suggest  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  an  in 
spired  man.  He  lived  and  moved  under  the  immediate  guid 
ance  and  direction  of  the  Almighty.  I  think  his  wonderful 
career  and  his  singular  character  can  be  explained  and  ac 
counted  for  in  no  other  way.  Men  grow.  The  great  men  of 
the  world,  its  heroes,  its  statesmen  and  its  martyrs  are  very 
largely  the  result  of  circumstances  which  environ  them.  But 
now  and  then  in  some  great  crisis  of  the  world's  history  the 
great  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  universe  lays  his  hand  upon 
some  man,  and  he  breathes  into  him  just  enough  of  the  divine 
to  lift  him  a  little  above  his  fellows,  and  he  uses  him  to  accom 
plish  the  purposes  and  fulfill  the  divine  mission.  Such  a  man 
as  that  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  I  have  never  doubted  that  he 
was  as  truly  inspired  to  do  his  marvelous  work  for  his  country 
as  was  any  prophet,  priest  or  king  to  whom  history  or  revela 
tion  makes  any  reference.  .  Just  as  Abraham  of  old  was  led 
from  the  land  of  his  fathers  to  a  new  and  a  better  land  that 
should  be  for  him  and  his  children  forever,  so  was  our  Abra 
ham  led  from  that  rude,  humble  home  on  the  frontier  to  the 
Nation's  home  at  Washington,  that  this  land  which  we  love 
might  be  for  us  and  for  our  children  forever,  and  that  this  gov 
ernment  of  the  people,  for  the  people  and  by  the  people  might 
never  perish  from  the  earth.  I  think  that  the  reading  of  his 
tory  will  carry  with  it  the  conviction  that  the  great  General  of 
all  has  always  his  hands  upon  the  affairs  of  this  world  and  holds 
the  guiding  star  of  its  progress,  and  its  hope  and  its  joy  forever. 

The  glittering  aphorism  so  often  attributed  to  Napoleon, 
which  is  really  much  older  than  he,  that  God  always  fights  on 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  139 

the  side  of  the  strongest  battalion,  is  as  false  in  fact  as  it  is  in 
principle.  I  believe  He  fought  on  the  side  of  the  Greeks  at 
Marathon,  and  saved  civilization  from  being  swallowed  up ;  I 
believe  it  was  His  word  that  raised  the  storm  that  swept  the 
Spanish  Armada  to  destruction  and  ruin,  and  saved  the  world 
from  being  dominated  by  Spanish  superstition  and  ignorance; 
I  believe  that  he  was  with  those  men  from  Minnesota  who 
stood  so  nobly  with  Thomas  at  Chickamauga  while  the  waves 
of  battle  raged  round  and  about  them,  but  never  over  them, 
and  whose  bravery  can  never  be  too  highly  sung,  and  with 
those  other  Minnesota  men  on  that  awful  day  at  Gettysburg 
who  held  back  the  full  tide  of  the  Rebellion,  and  whose  devo 
tion  will  be  a  priceless  legacy  to  their  children  and  to  their 
children's  children  forever.  It  may  be  that  for  any  good  cause 
there  comes  a  Fort  Sumter  in  the  beginning,  perhaps  there 
may  even  come  a  Fredricksburg  or  Chancellorsville ;  but  Ap- 
pomattox  and  Victory  are  written  in  the  end  for  every  right 
eous  cause  as  surely  as  there  is  a  God  in  heaven. 

It  was  no  accident  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  raised  under 
those  humble  surroundings.  It  was  a  part  of  the  plan  of  God. 
He  was  intended  to  do  a  special  work.  He  was  fitted  and 
trained  and  prepared  for  it.  He  was  guided  and  directed  in  the 
day  of  it,  and  in  the  full  tide  he  was  taken  home  that  there 
might  be  neither  spot  nor  stain  upon  the  fullness  of  its  per 
fection.  Men  would  have  chosen  a  Seward,  a  Chase,  perhaps  a 
Sumner,  or  a  Stanton,  but  the  One  whose  ways  are  not  our 
ways  thought  otherwise.  So  this  is  to  me  a  distinct  character 
istic  of  Lincoln's  life  and  character,  and  I  believe  that  his  work 
was  not  only  not  done,  but  that  it  never  could  have  been  done 
without  the  immediate  direction,  intervention  and  control  of 
the  Almighty. 


140  T.INCOT-N    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY  M.  D.  GROVER,  ATTORN EY-AT-L AW,  ST.   PAUL. 
(Read  February  12,  1902.) 


In  1809,  on  the  12th  day  of  February,  over  70,000  babies 
were  born  in  the  world.  I  have  heard  of  but  two  of  them : 
One  was  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  the  other  was  Charles  Dar 
win.  The  rest  of  all  those  thousands  lived  and  died  in  their 
own  way,  leaving  no  memory  behind  save  the  memory  inspired 
by  loving  friends  and  acquaintances;  and  we  would  not  know 
that  they  ever  lived  if  we  did  not  now  and  then  go  to  some  old 
country  graveyard  and  see  a  name  on  a  stone,  discolored  by 
the  sunshine  and  the  rain  of  the  seasons,  and  perhaps  under 
the  name  a  quaint  epitaph  to  draw  a  tear  or  excite  a  smile. 
Now  I  remember  one  such  epitaph  that  brings  to  mind  that 
Dr.  Hayward  once  lived,  and  it  was  this :  "Here  lie  the  re 
mains  of  Dr.  Hayward  who  lived  seventy  years  and  never 
voted,  and  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  And  this  one 
by  Edward  Jones:  "She  lived  with  her  husband  fifty  years, 
and  died  in  the  hopes  of  a  better  life."  And  another:  "She 
was  a  virtuous  woman,  and  she  sang  in  the  choir,  but  she  died 
with  cholera  morbus  from  eating  green  fruit  in  the  blessed 
hope  of  a  glorious  immortality."  And  there  is  one  in  Connec 
ticut  of  Solomon  Pease: 

"Under  this  sod,  'neath  these  trees, 
Lieth  the  body  of  Solomon  Pease. 
He  is  not  in  this  grave,  it  is  only  his  pod; 
He  shelled  out  his  soul,  and  it  went  up  to  God." 

And  so  but  for  the  epitaphs  you  and  I  would  not  know,  and 
the  world  would  hardly  know,  one  of  the  70,000  born  on  that 
day. 

AVe  know  Lincoln  because  in  the  performance  of  his  duty 
he  did  more  than  any  other  living  man  to  preserve  this  repub 
lic.  I  am  not  here  to  deliver  a  eulogy  on  Lincoln;  his  life  and 
character  have  been  pictured  in  words  more  beautiful  than  I 
can  utter,  but  to  talk  with  you  for  a  little  while  as  to  what 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL,   ADDRESSES.  Ill 

the  war  meant,  and  what  has  been  the  result  to  you  and  to  me, 
and  to  the  country,  and  what  he  did  with  the  help  of  the  gen 
erals  and  the  soldiers  and  the  loyal  people  of  the  country. 

Lincoln  was  a  very  patient  man.  First,  when  the  rebel  rep 
resentatives  went  to  the  courts  of  France  and  England,  and, 
without  communication  with  our  government  and  waiting  for 
its  representatives  the  belligerency  of  the  South  was  recog 
nized,  Seward,  secretary  of  state,  resented  it,  and  wrote  a  let 
ter  to  send  to  Russell,  the  British  minister,  which,  had  he  sent 
it,  would  have  made  wrar,  because  it  would  have  led  to  the  rec 
ognition  by  England  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  I  invite 
your  attention  sometime  when  you  look  at  history  to  find  that 
letter,  and  see  what  Lincoln  struck  out,  and  what  he  put  in, 
and  how  he  moulded  it  to  meet  the  situation,  and  how,  instead 
of  war,  it  made  peace  for  the  time,  and  stopped  the  recognition 
which  was  so  imminent. 

When  the  old  Merrimac  hulk  was  saved,  and  the  Rebels 
put  a  powerful  steam  engine  into  it,  and  sheeted  "it  with  iron 
rails,  and  made  it  the  strongest  ship  afloat,  Mr.  Bushnell,  of 
Bridgeport,  Connecticut,  appreciated  the  danger  to  the  coun 
try  and  to  our  commerce;  so  when  that  one  boat  entered  the 
Potomac  and  McClellan  dared  not  move  his  transports,  Mr. 
Bushnell  drafted  a  vessel  to  meet  it.  He  was  asked  to  submit 
his  p1an  to  John  Ericcson,  the  great  inventor,  and  Ericcson 
said  it  was  not  good,  but  that  he  had  on  the  shelf  a  plan  of  a 
little  monitor,  the  fighting  ship  of  the  earth,  if  it  could  only  be 
built  and  put  afloat.  Bushnell  took  it  and  showed  it  to  Gideon 
Welles,  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  He  turned  it  down.  Through 
the  influence  of  Winslow,  who  believed  in  Ericcson,  he  was  in 
troduced  to  Lincoln  with  the  plan.  A  tired  and  weary  man  got 
up  from  bed  at  night  to  meet  them,  and  the  next  day  he  made 
an  appointment  with  the  Naval  Board,  where  Welles  was,  and 
when  his  bright  mind  comprehended  it  he  said,  "Gentlemen, 
there  is  something  in  it," — as  the  Chicago  girl  said  when  she 
put  her  foot  in  her  shoe. 

His  act  and  his  influence  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  plan  and 
encouraged  it — although  I  ought  to  say  that  the  Naval  Board 
would  not  contract  to  purchase  the  ship  until  it  was  guaran 
teed  to  float  and  to  fight ;  and  it  was  built  with  money  ad 
vanced  by  Bushnell  and  Winslow  and  John  A.  Griswold,  and 
when  it  was  launched  it  floated,  and  it  sailed  around  the  water 
to  Fortress  Monroe  and  met  the  Merrimac  on  the  9th  of  March, 


142  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

beat  it  in  the  battle,  and  revolutionized  the  navies  of  the  world. 
That  act  and  influence  of  Lincoln  alone,  in  building  that  boat, 
saved  the  recognition  of  the  Confederacy  by  England  and 
France,  and  in  the  end  was  one  controlling  thing  that  saved 
the  Union. 

Later  on,  after  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville,  when  Lee 
and  his  army  moved  north,  Hooker  wanted  to  go  to  Richmond 
and  strike  Fredericksburg  again — crossing  at  Fredericksburg. 
Lincoln  vetoed  it.  He  said,  "Lee  is  coming  north  and  the  army 
will  follow  him.  To  divide  your  army  and  put  part  of  it 
across  the  river  is  like  placing  an  ox  on  the  top  rail  of  a  fence; 
he  can  neither  go  one  way  nor  kick  the  other." 

Lincoln  had  a  great  heart.  I  remember  the  story  which  a 
gentleman  told  me  years  ago  like  this:  The  only  son  of  wealthy 
parents  in  New  York — a  wayward  boy,  enlisted.  He  grew 
tired  of  his  enlistment,  violated  the  rules,  sought  to  escape  and 
was  arrested.  He  thought  he  would  bribe  the  guard  by  giving 
them  morphine,  but  the  party  employed  made  a  mistake  and 
they  got  strychnine  and  killed  the  guard,  and  the  boy  was  sen 
tenced  to  be  shot.  The  man  who  told  me  the  story  was  a  mem 
ber  of  Congress  from  New  York,  and  the  father  and  mother 
appealed  to  him  to  save  the  son  from  death.  He  knew  Stanton 
and  he  called  on  him.  Stanton  turned  him  out  of  his  office  and 
said,  "You  come  here  to  appeal  to  me  solely  because  of  our 
friendly  relations,  and  to  induce  me  to  disregard  my  duties,  for 
the  rules  and  the  laws  must  be  enforced."  He  went  back  to 
New  York  and  reported  that  he  could  not  succeed, — that  there 
was  no  hope.  But,  being  urged  by  the  loving  father  and  moth 
er  to  renewed  efforts,  and  the  suggestion  being  made  that  the 
young  man  was  insane,  and  armed  with  the  affidavit  of  Dr. 
Willard  and  Dr.  Gray  he  went  back  to  Washington.  On  the 
night  before  the  execution,  which  was  appointed  for  the  mor 
row,  with  Senator  Harris  and  some  of  his  friends  he  went  to 
the  White  House,  and  Lincoln,  worn  and  tired  got  out  of  bed 
and,  with  uncombed  hair,  and  in  bare  feet  and  slippers,  came 
down  to  meet  them.  He  read  the  affidavits,  and  he  knew  Dr. 
Willard  and  he  knew  Dr.  Gray,  and  he  called  his  secretary  and 
sent  a  telegram  reprieving  the  boy  for  the  present  until  an  ex 
amination  could  be  made.  And  now,  when  he  signed  that 
order  he  put  out  his  hand  and  stopped  the  march  of  death ;  and 
he  told  Senator  Harris  and  his  friends,  "Don't  let  Stanton  know 
what  I  have  done,  for  I  need  him,  and  after  all,  gentlemen, 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  143 

I  have  but  little  influence  in  this  administration."  And  later 
on,  when  Grant  came  to  take  command  of  the  army,  and 
Stanton  wanted  to  know -his  plan,  Grant  said,  "I  will  give  my 
plans  when  the  commander-in-chief  requests  it."  Still  Stanton 
said,  "General,  what  is  your  plan?"  and  Grant  says,  "It  is  to 
get  to  the  rebels;  march  until  I  find  rebels,  and  fight  and 
whip  them."  Stanton  said  that  would  not  do,  they  ought  to 
know  definitely — that  Washington  must  *be  protected.  Lin 
coln,  with  his  great  hard  common-sense  said,  "Stanton,  you 
and  I  have  been  trying  to  run  this  t^ing  for  several  years  and 
we  have  made  a  failure  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  we  have 
got  Mr.  Grant  here,  and  we  will  let  Grant  run  it."  And  they 
did.  Again  in  the  critical  and  crucial  tests  the  rare  good  sense 
and  sagacity  of  Lincoln  saved  us  from  ruin  and  accomplished 
that,  with  the  aid  of  the  armies  in  the  field,  which  gives  us 
what  we  have  today. 

Now  all  world's  wars  have  had  their  decisive  battle.  Get 
tysburg  was  the  decisive  battle  of  the  Civil  War  because  it 
it  saved  the  Union  and  saved  free  institutions.  Why  I  re 
member,  as  I  have  read  of  the  battle  and  the  history  of  the 
battle  many  times — I  remember  the  occurrence  of  events, 
slight  in  themselves,  which  saved  the  battle  and  won  the 
victory.  When  we  think  for  a  moment  that  the  actual  salva 
tion  of  this  country  and  the  winning  of  the  war  depended  on 
that  battle — that,  through  secret  contracts  with  Napoleon  of 
France,  five  ships  were  being  built  for  the  rebels  in  the  ports 
of  Bordeaux  and  Marseilles,  and  that  Napoleon  was  in  close 
negotiations  with  them,  and  that  the  Cabinet  of  England  was 
looking  to  the  recognition  of  the  Confederacy — when  we  re 
member  the  reaction  that  followed  the  proclamation  of 
freedom  which  went  into  effect  on  the  first  day  of  January, 
the  humiliation  of  the  defeat  of  the  army  of  the  Potomac, 
we  have  brought  to  our  minds  the  crucial  test  of  that  hour. 
Hooker  was  removed  on  the  2t8h  of  June.  Meade  succeeded 
him,  knowing-  nothing  of  the  location  of  the  army.  And  what 
saved  that  battle?  Without  going  into  detail  it  was  Gen 
eral  Pleasanton  sending  Buford's  cavalry  in  front  of  his  in 
fantry, — going  two  miles  in  front  of  Gettysburg  where  the 
roads  from  Chambersburg  and  York  come  together,  and,  with 
his  cavalry  and  their  guns,  resisting  the  approach  towards 
Gettysburg  for  over  two  hours  until  the  first  corps  arrived 


144:  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

to  defend  it — and  then  only  four  thousand  of  the  first  corps. 
Then  the  placing  of  Sickles'  line  too  far  out  from  the  line 
of  the  ridge  at  Gettysburg,  the  break  between  his  line  and 
Hancock's  left;  the  fact  that  we  didn't  possess  Round  Top. 
Why,  there  is  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  men  who  have  stu 
died  it,  that  the  charge  of  the  old  First  Minnesota  Regi 
ment,  under  the  direction  of  Hancock,  staying  the  rebels  for 
fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  until  he  could  reform  his  line,  saved 
the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  Hancock  charged  into  the  line  which 
enfiladed  it  for  a  mile.  General  Warren  went  on  to  Round 
Top  to  establish  a  signal  station,  saw  the  rebels  approaching 
it,  rushed  down  the  hill,  found  the  division  of  Syke's  corps, 
the  old  fifth  army  corps  in  reach,  and  took  a  brigade  and  led 
it  on  to  Round  Top  and  saved  it,  and  saved  the  battle  of  Get 
tysburg.  Lee  walked  before  his  tent  and  said,  "O  God,  for 
one  hour  of  Stonewall  Jackson."  Read  the  accounts  of  the 
war  and  of  the  battle.  There  is  no  Union  officer  connected 
with  it  who  does  not  admit,  that  had  Longstreet  made  the 
attack  at  any  time  prior  to  two  o'clock  of  that  day,  the  left 
wing  of  our  army  would  have  been  crushed,  and  we  would 
have  lost  the  battle  of  Gettysburg. 

I  remember  the  Fourth  of  July  of  that  year.  I  had  a 
chance  to  go  to  Rutland,  the  county  seat,  about  twenty-five 
miles  from  my  home,  to  attend  the  Fourth  of  July  celebra 
tion.  I  started  out  the  day  before  and  went  as  far  as  West 
Wallingford  and  I  stayed  there  all  night  with  a  friend,  Mr. 
Nicholson  and  his  family,  then  we  went  to  Rutland.  It  was 
a  rainy,  dark,  dreary  morning;  we  knew  that  the  boys  were 
fighting  at  Gettysburg  and  the  wires  were  down.  We  gath 
ered  solemnly  in  the  great  town  hall  and  ate  the  little  din 
ner  which  the  ladies  of  the  town  provided;  Senator  Foote 
was  there  to  make  an  address,  and  General  Cameron  was 
there  to  make  an  address,  and  Sullivan's  band;  but  there  was 
silence  as  dead  as  a  funeral.  I  remember  about  two  o'clock 
that  afternoon  when  Col.  Joyce  came  in  and  mounted  the  table 
and  announced  that  Pickett  had  been  beaten  in  his  assault, 
and  that  we  had  won  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  Men  threw 
up  their  hats,  they  took  off  their  coats  and  vests,  they  hugged 
and  kissed  each  other  and  cried  for  joy;  and  I  remember, 
too,  that  when  we  went  away  with  the  news  of  that  battle, 
we  knew  that  Grant  was  before  Vicksburg,  and  it  was  agreed 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL,    ADDRESSES.  14-5 

that  if  Grant  won  Vicksburg,  one  hundred  guns  should  be  fired 
to  tell  the  news  down  the  valley  of  Otter  Creek.  We  drove 
home  that  night  happy  over  the  victory  at  Gettysburg;  and 
there  were  Mr.  Nicholson  and  his  wife  ("Mother  Nick"  we 
called  her,  for  she  was  a  mother),  blessed  woman;  and  there 
was  her  daughter  Aggie  and  Aggie's  little  boy  David,  whose  father 
was  in  Stannard's  brigade  at  Gettysburg.  We  sat  on  the  front 
steps  and  visited  quietly  and  solemnly  and  fell  to  wondering 
whether  the  baby  was  an  orphan  and  whether  Aggie  was  a 
widow7.  About  eleven  o'clock  that  night  we  heard  the  first 
gun  boom,  and  \ve  sat  there  until  we  counted  a  hundred 
guns  and  knew  that  Vicksburg  had  surrendered.  They  had 
a  little  organ  and  I  could  play  a  tune  on  it,  and  we  all  went 
into  the  parlor  and  I  played  "Victory,"  and  Mother  Nick  and 
Aggie  and  Nicholson  sang  it,  and  kissed  the  baby,  and  we 
went  to  bed,  waiting  for  the  morrow,  and  for  news  to  know 
whether  Aggie  was  a  widow  or  not.  But  she  was  not  a 
widow. 

I  remember  also  how  the  boys  used  to  go  to  war.  Now 
there  was  one  boy  in  the  town  named  Charlie  Edgerton,  a 
bright,  handsome  brave  boy,  an  only  son,  and  he  enlisted.  And 
Mary  Reed  loved  him,  and  he  loved  Mary;  and  when  he  went 
to  take  the  train  after  he  had  been  mustered  in,  he  went  away 
with  the  handshake  of  his  friends  and  his  mates;  he  went  away 
in  the  midst  of  tears;  he  went  away  with  a  father's  blessing 
and  a  mother's  benediction,  and  the  kiss  of  love — the  last  he 
ever  received  from  Mary — on  his  lips.  And  then  there  was 
Joe  Gilbert.  Now,  to  show  you  the  difference  between  the 
scenes  of  those  days — Joe  went  home  for  a  day  or  two  be 
fore  it  was  time  for  him  to  go,  and  he  had  a  good  suit  of 
clothes,  the  best  he  ever  had.  And  when  the  orderly  came 
around  and  told  him  he  must  report  to  his  company,  for  they 
were  going  to  the  front,  he  put  on  his  hat  and  lit  his  pipe. 
His  mother  said,  "Joe,  won't  you  pick  me  up  a  basket  of  chips 
before  you  go,"  but  the  old  man  said,  "Don't  you  do  it,  Joe, 
let  her  pick  up  her  own  chips,  I've  always  done  it."  Charlie 
did  not  come  back,  Joe  did  come  back.  Charlie  died  from 
pneumonia.  The  s^ood  neighbors,  from  patriotism,  and  be 
cause  he  deserves  it,  on  Decoration  Day  put  flowers  on  Joe's 
grave.  Nobody  knows  where  Charlie's  grave  is;  it  is  on  a 
hill  somewhere  around  Cedar  Mountain,  and  I  imagine  that 


146  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

the  flowers  of  spring  grow  on  it,  or  near  his  grave,  for  nature 
and  God  take  care  of  it. 

After  we  won  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  there  was  an  end 
of  any  danger  from  foreign  recognition  of  the  Confederacy. 
Appomattox  was  in  sight.  The  road  to  it  was  by  the  way 
of  the  Wilderness  and  Spottsylvania  and  Cold  Harbor, — a 
road  of  blood,  and  with  Sherman  to  the  sea;  but  it  came. 
And  now  here  was  the  issue,  a  struggle  with  us  between 
North  and  South — not  a  mere  struggle  between  contending 
factions  for  political  rule,  like  France  and  Germany — not  a  bit; 
a  struggle  to  destroy  a  fundamental  principle  of  our  govern 
ment — equality  before  the  law;  a  struggle  to  uphold  an  aristo 
cracy  asserting  to  itself  power  which  cannot  exist  in  free  in 
stitutions  and  is  contrary  to  sound  morals;  asserting  to  itself 
a  power  that  denied  men  the  right  to  follow  God's  sunshine 
around  the  earth ;  asserting  a  power  that  closed  the  Missis 
sippi;  asserting  a  power  that  would  have  dominated  the 
country,  for  Abraham  Lincoln  never  said  a  thing  more  wise 
than  when  he  quoted,  "A  house  divided  against  itself  can 
not  stand." 

It  is  said  that  Providence  elected  Lincoln.  Politics  nom 
inated  and  elected  him,  with  the  help  of  Horace  Greeley.  Lin 
coln  was  a  man  of  acute  political  sense  and  sagacity.  In  the 
debate  with  Douglas  in  1858,  when  the  great  pivotal  question 
was  "Freedom  or  Slavery" — the  South  claiming  that  slaves 
were  property,  and  that  the  owner  had  the  right  to  take  them 
anywhere  in  the  Union ;  the  Republican  party  claiming  that 
it  was  the  duty  of  Congress  to  keep  it  out  of  the  territories; 
and  Douglas  that  it  was  for  the  people  of  a  territory  to  de 
cide — Lincoln  formulated  this  question  to  submit  to  Douglas. 
Lincoln's  friends  said  "Don't  do  it,  he  will  answer  you  adroitly 
and  he  will  defeat  you."  Lincoln  said,  "He  may,  but  if  he 
does,  the  interests  of  our  country  are  at  stake,  and  it  will  de 
feat  him  for  the  presidency."  So  he  put  the  question:  "May 
the  people  of  a  territory  by  lawful  means,  against  the  wish  of 
any  other  citizen,  before  the  adoption  of  a  state  constitution, 
exclude  slavery  from  a  territory?"  Mr.  Douglas  said,  "Wheth 
er  slaves  shall  exist  in  a  territory  or  not  is  for  the  territory 
to  determine  for  itself:  it  is  a  creature  of  law  and  cannot 
exist  except  in  places  where  the  law  upholds  it."  That  went 
through  the  country.  That  was  called  the  Freeport  Heresy. 
When  Lincoln  started  to  make  the  speech  at  Freeport  Douglas 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  147 

had  made  a  magnificent  address.  Lincoln  felt  the  force  of 
it.  He  took  off  his  coat  when  it  came  his  turn  to  speak  and  he 
put  it  in  the  hands  of  Judd  who  was  beside  him,  and  said, 
"judd,  you  hold  this  for  a  few  minutes  while  I  proceed  to 
stone  Douglas." 

That  1'reeport  speech,  that  Freeport  heresy  divided  the 
Democratic  party.  The  South  would  not  have  it,  the  con 
vention  split;  Breckenridge  was  nominated  by  one  faction  and 
he  carried  eleven  states,  Douglas  by  the  other,  and  he  car 
ried  one  state,  Missouri.  Bell  and  Everett,  a  couple  of  old 
Whigs,  nominated  by  a  body  of  men  who  thought  you  could 
compromise  between  loyalty  and  treason  and  between  right 
and  wrong,  had  three  states.  Lincoln  had  1,800,000  votes; 
Douglas  had  1,300,000,  and  that  1,300,000  that  went  for  Doug 
las  shouldered  muskets  to  fight  by  the  side  of  the  Republicans 
for  the  Union;  but  if  the  South  had  not  been  divided,  if 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  not  put  that  question  as  he  did,  and 
Douglas  had  not  answered  it  as  he  did,  Abraham  Lincoln 
never  would  have  been  president  of  the  United  States.  These 
things  are  interesting  to  know  and  to  think  about  in  these 
gatherings. 

Now  what  did  it  do, — what  was  the  result?  Why,  when 
Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox  the  flag  of  our  country  was 
hidden  from  the  sunshine  a  part  of  every  twenty-four  hours. 
Now  when  the  sun's  rays  leave  it  in  the  harbor  of  Portland 
they  greet  it  in  the  harbor  of  Manila  Bay.  When  the  war 
broke  out  there  were  three  parties  in  the  South,  the  slave 
owner,  the  slave,  and  the  poor  white  man  whose  condition 
was  worse  than  the  slave's.  '  They  could  not  work  because 
they  could  get  nothing  to  do;  if  they  were  to  raise  a  bit  of 
cotton  it  was  found  full  of  cottonseed,  for  they  had  no  cot 
ton-gins,  and  that  was  presumptive  proof  of  larceny.  Well, 
it  is  not  so  today.  Time  has  worked  slowly,  but  the  great 
work  has  gone  on,  and  if  you  will  go  down  through  the 
South  today  you  will  see  how,  under  the  rule  of  a  free  gov 
ernment  and  the  operation  of  the  constitution  and  the  laws 
the  little  streams  are  being  chained  to  wheels  of  manufact 
uring  skill  and  industry,  how  furnace  fires  are  kindling;  all 
along  on  the  railroad  stations  are  little  cotton-gins  where  the 
poor  man  takes  his  cotton,  has  the  seed  taken  out  of  it,  has 
it  baled  and  gets  his  money  for  it.  How  much  better  the 
girls  are  dressed;  how  much  happier  the  homes  are;  how  the 


148  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

schools  are  growing  up !  Go  down  there  and  you  will  get  some 
conception  of  what  the  war  meant,  of  what  Lincoln  did,  and 
of  what  Gettysburg  saved. 

But  it  is  not  alone  in  the  South  that  our  country  and  its  mar 
velous  growth  suggest  to  us  consideration  and  the  memory 
of  those  days.  Why,  tonight,  American-made  locomotives  are 
whistling  by  the  pyramids  of  Egypt.  Today  American  loco 
motives  are  run  on  the  railways  of  India  and  carrying  people 
rushing  by  the  sacred  waters  of  the  Ganges.  Three  years 
ago  there  were  but  three  American  locomotives  in  the  whole 
British  Islands;  today  there  are  locomotives  of  American  make 
on  every  good  road.  Everywhere  throughout  Europe  he  who 
wants  to  buy  the  best  tools  looks  to  see  if  there  is  the  stamp, 
"Made  in  America."  Why,  they  even  make  British  plum  pud 
dings  in  Delaware.  Bread  is  made  in  Palestine  from  flour 
made  in  Minneapolis,  and  the  gardens  of  Palestine  are  today 
watered  with  waters  pumped  from  the  Jordan  by  American 
pumps.  Our  sewing  machines  are  everywhere,  and  our  type 
writers  are  used  in  every  language.  We  are  not  only  the 
supreme  cotton  producers  in  the  world,  but  are  getting  to  be 
the  great  cotton  manufacturers  of  the  world.  In  1870,  five 
years  after  the  close  of  the  war,  we  only  made  one-seventh  of 
the  textile  fabrics  of  Great  Britain,  one-fifth  of  France,  one- 
half  of  Germany.  Today  we  make  as  much  as  Great  Britain 
alone,  and  as  much  as  France  and  Germany  together — one- 
third  the  manufactured  products  of  the  world.  Away  off  in 
the  land  of  the  remote  people  of  Corea,  within  the  last  month, 
there  was  a  celebration  upon  the  building  of  an  electric  tram 
way  by  a  contractor  from  San  Francisco  with  materials  made 
in  America,  to  be  operated  by  American  motoneers.  Down  on 
a  little  river  in  Connecticut  there  are  great  ships  being  built, 
the  largest  of  the  earth,  which,  before  you  meet  again,  will 
sail  around  the  cape  and  be  upon  the  Pacific,  and  carrying 
American  products  to  the  Orient,  and  bringing  Oriental  prod 
ucts  back.  What  the  war  meant  was  saving  the  Union;  what 
saving  the  Union  meant  was  establishing  free  institutions 
where  all  men  could  stand  equal  before  the  law,  and  where 
men  of  grenins  and  of  power  and  of  great  commercial  sense 
and  activity  could  do  what  has  been  done  in  building  rail 
ways  and  public  institutions  and  the  great  industrial  activities 
of  the  age. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  140 

And  now  that  the  war  is  over  and  slavery  is  gone,  and  the 
Union  is  saved,  we  can  look  back  and  see  how  helpful  even 
the  humblest  private  soldier  was,  but  the  grandest  figure  of 
that  time,  the  one  prominent  figure,  the  one  who  is  recognized 
and  will  be  for  all  time  as  the  indispensable  figure,  was  the 
one  man  of  the  70,000  born  in  1809  on  the  twelfth  day  of 
Februarv,  whom  we  call  Abraham  Lincoln. 


150  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY  CAPT.   EDWIN  E.   WOODMAN,   U.   S.  VOLS. 
(Read  February  12,  1902.) 


Great  characters  appeal  to  us  variously,  because  we  our 
selves  differ.  I  think  we  may  agree  that  some  of  them  ap 
peal  to  us  chiefly  through  the  intellect,  like  Newton,  and 
Bacon;  others  through  the  imagination,  like  King  Arthur,  and 
Richard  of  the  Lion  Heart;  and  yet  others  through  the  feel 
ings,  as  Lady  Jane  Gray  and  Marie  Antoinette;  and  a  few, 
combining  in  degree  these  several  elements  of  spiritual  power 
over  us,  compel  our  love  as  well  as  our  admiration.  For  me 
Lincoln  stands  in  this  last  choice  company. 

If  we  consider  his  abilities  and  life  work,  he  was  a  man 
of  extraordinary  powers,  unselfishly  devoted  to  the  noblest 
ends.  Without  scholastic  education,  self-taught  in  youth  out 
of  half  a  dozen  books — the  Bible,  Shakespeare,  Aesop,  Bun- 
yan,  a  grammar,  an  arithmetic — with  these  he  put  a  cutting 
edge  and  an  incisive  point  on  an  intellect  of  the  finest  natural 
quality  and  temper — a  mind  which  he  himself  compared  to 
steel,  in  that  it  was  very  hard  to  scratch  anything  on  it,  and 
almost  impossible  to  rub  that  thing  out  again.  I  think  the 
word  that  most  fitly  comprehends  his  abilities  is  the  word 
"genuis,"  used  in  its  original  sense  as  signifying  the  divine 
element  in  his  individuality;  for  if  we  take  into  account  this 
lack  of  early  training,  we  are  at  a  loss,  except  upon  the  theory 
of  very  unusual  natural  endowments,  to  explain  how  he  could 
exert  so  great  skill  in  so  many  aptitudes  which  singly  are  suf 
ficient  to  raise  less  gifted  men  to  distinction.  Yet  we  do  not 
speak  of  his  versatility,  for  he  exercised  his  powers  so  strong 
ly  in  every  direction  that  the  word  would  be  trivial  if  applied 
to  him.  To  speak  of  Lincoln  as  statesman,  is  to  suggest  one 
of  the  great  men  that  were  in  him. 

His  refined  taste,  which  led  to  the  production  of  oratory 
and  literature  of  permanent  value,  was  not  formed  on  these 
few  great  models  that  he  knew,  but  rather  was  innate,  a  nat 
ural  gift  and  grace  of  mind,  more  strikingly  manifested  in  his 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  151 

first  political  composition,  written  at  the  age  of  twenty-three, 
than  in  the  Gettysburg  address,  even  though  the  latter  has 
deservedly  been  put  into  bronze  and  marble,  and  lives  in  many 
hearts;  because  few  men  of  twenty-three  can  match  the  purity 
and  precision  of  that  first  effort,  even  if  they  have  the  wisdom 
to  say  anything  important  on  public  questions.  Indeed,  he 
is  a  striking  exemplar  of  the  truth  that  the  first  need  of  the 
speaker  or  the  writer  is  something  to  say,  that  substance  must 
precede  form  and  will  fitly  clothe  itself.  For  he  never  spoke 
without  meaning  or  significance,  and  his  mind  was  so  filled 
with  serious  objects  and  benevolent  purposes,  thoroughly 
considered,  that  his  thoughts  flowed  in  words  limpid  as  the 
waters  of  a  crystal  spring.  We  have  had  few  orators  who 
could  put  their  feelings  into  words  and  make  them  felt  again 
by  others,  as  Lincoln  could,  and  this  is  the  highest  achieve 
ment  in  oratory. 

He  had,  too,  in  very  large  measure,  the  sense  of  humor 
which  is  so  distinctively  an  American  trait  and  mark  of  sanity. 
A  witticism  is  an  instantaneous  judgment;  comprehension  of 
an  incongruity  is  a  somewhat  slower,  but  still  a  rapid  con 
clusion  of  reasoning.  Lincoln  was  strong  in  both,  and  happy, 
as  we  know,  in  parrying  the  thrust  of  a  specious  opponent,  or 
turning  aside  the  unreasonable  request  of  a  visiting  delegation 
by  an  anecdote  of  something  that  occurred  among  the  farm 
ers  of  Illinois.  The  latest  authenticated  instance  of  this  that 
has  come  to  me,  tells  of  a  deputation  of  gentlemen  who  called 
with  a  request  that  a  proclamation  of  emancipation  should  be 
immediately  issued.  He  explained  to  them  that  the  time  was 
not  ripe  to  make  it  effective,  that  if  he  were  to  do  it  then  it 
must  necessarily  have  largely  the  character  of  the  celebrated 
Bull  against  the  Comet.  Then  continuing  he  said,  "Now,  by 
way  of  illustration,  how  many  legs  will  a  sheep  have  if  you 
call  the  tail  a  leg?"  and  of  course  they  all  said  five.  "No,",  he 
said,  "you  are  mistaken,  calling  the  tail  a  leg  will  not  make 
it  so."  Then  the  deputation  withdrew  in  good  humor,  dis 
comfited  it  is  true,  but  still  convinced  that  to  write  on  a 
sheet  of  paper  "All  slaves  are  henceforth  forever  free,"  and 
calling  that  emancipation,  would  not  of  itself  free  a  single 
slave.  I  like  to  think  of  his  story  telling,  that  it  was  his  teach 
ing  by  parables,  for  which  he  had  the  most  illustrious  author 
ity. 

We  love  him  for  the  gentle  spirit  with  which  he  met  such 


152  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

trials;  for  the  kindness  of  heart  which  he  displayed  in  his 
domestic  and  social  relations,  and  in  all  those  public  functions 
in  which  he  came  in  touch  with  the  people,  of  which  there  are 
a  thousand  incidents;  for  "knowing  what  a  gentleman  is  like 
inside,"  as  he  once  expressed  it,  and  for  having  such  a  soul 
himself;  for  the  simplicity  of  his  manners,  so  that  while  he 
sat  on  a  level  with  kings,  his  life  was  still  visibly  rooted  in 
the  loam  of  the  prairie,  like  our  own.  These  human  graces 
show  the  natural  man  to  be  of  the  same  clay  with  friends  and 
neighbors  whom  we  love  for  the  same  qualities,  and  thus  they 
bring  him  within  the  embrace  of  our  affections.  These  humble 
traits  endear  him.  They  are  like  that  tender  touch  in  the  de 
scription  of  the  Master,  that  so  brings  home  to  our  hearts  his 
humanity  and  brotherhood,  where  it  is  said  that  "in  all  things 
he  was  tempted  like  as  we  are." 

But  there  is  another  side, — the  noblest  aspect  of  this  great 
man,  in  which  shines  his  distinguishing  trait  of  righteousness. 
It  is  this  which  gives  him  rank  among  the  heroes  of  the  ages. 
It  was  he  who  first  saw  and  proclaimed  and  denounced  the 
conspiracy  to  make  slavery  national.  Throughout  his  career 
in  national  politics  he  subjected  every  adversary  and  every 
measure  to  the  test  of  righteousness.  For  the  finest  example 
of  this  kind  of  heroism  we  must  indeed  turn  to  religious  his 
tory.  In  the  old  literature  of  the  Hebrews  the  prophets  are 
represented  as  speaking  by  authority  of  Jehovah.  Isaiah  said 
to  Israel :  "You  hew  down  a  cedar,  and  out  of  part  of  it  you 
make  a  fire  and  warm  yourselves,  with  another  part  you  roast 
your  meat,  and  out  of  the  rest  you  make  a  God,  a  graven 
image,  and  fall  down  and  worship  it.  They  that  make  a 
graven  image  are  all  of  them  vanity,  saveth  the  Lord."  And 
the  Lord  did  say  it,  speaking  through  the  most  available  in 
strument,  the  most  Godlike  man  of  the  time  and  place.  So 
Lincoln,  like  exaltation  in  effect  cried  aloud  again  and  again, 
"No  man  has  the  moral  right  to  be  indifferent  as  to  whether 
slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down;  slavery  is  wrong";  and  he 
too  might  have  added,  "Thus  sayeth  the  Lord,"  for  he  was 
the  Lord's  annointed  to  lead  us  from  our  sin.  Again  he  dis 
played  the  same  prophetic  power  and  spirit  in  the  stirring  use 
he  made  of  his  paraphrase  of  the  text,  "A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand,"  namely:  "I  believe  this  government  can 
not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free."  No  one 
else  ever  stated  the  radical  nature  of  the  controversy  so  terse- 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  153 

ly  and  so  clearly.  By  frequent  reiteration  of  it,  and  exposi 
tion  of  the  historical  grounds  of  it,  he  convinced  the  people 
of  the  entire  country,  the  South  as  well  as  the  North,  that 
this  end  of  compromises  and  expediences  had  come;  that 
future  efforts  to  deal  with  slavery  as,  at  the  same  time,  both 
right  and  wrong  in  the  same  country,  were  futiie.  I  believe 
that  this  utterance  precipitated  the  war,  though  that  was 
furthest  from  his  intention;  that  it  was  truly  a  prophetic  utter 
ance,  in  the  biblical  sense ;  that  it  emanated  from  "a  Power 
not  ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteousness." 

And  perhaps  the  most  striking  trait  in  the  character  of  Lin 
coln  was  his  profound  sense  of  dependence  on  this  Power. 
His  speeches  and  state  papers  abound  in  passages  which  show 
that  his  unwavering  belief  in  the  successful  outcome  of  the 
war  struggle  was  based  on  his  faith  that  God,  and  not  man, 
was  guiding  it.  He  held  his  office  reverently,  as  servant  of 
the  Most  High ;  as  agent  to  do  the  will  of  God,  as  he  might 
be  able  to  apprehend  it;  to  do  the  right  as  God  gave  him  to 
see  the  right.  From  the  first  he  conceived  that  the  issue  of 
the  struggle  depended  on  the  Divine  interposition  and  favor; 
he  never  doubted  that  a  just  God  would  bring  it  to  a  rightful 
end. 

His  whole  attitude  towards  the  momentous  crisis  was 
Hebraic  and  prophetic.  In  a  short  speech  at  Trenton,  when 
on  his  way  to  Washington  to  take  office,  after  telling  of  the 
deep  impression  made  on  his  youthful  mind  by  an  account 
of  the  battle  of  Trenton,  and  how  he  was  thus  early  con 
vinced  that  those  old  heroes  fought  for  something  of  great 
value,  he  said :  "I  shall  be  most  happy,  indeed,  if  I  shall  be  a 
humble  instrument  in  the  hand  of  the  Almighty,  and  of  this 
His  almost  chosen  people,  for  perpetuating  .,the  object  of 
the  Revolutionary  struggle."  And  because  he  died  in  the  hour 
that  the  Union  was  saved,  we  feel  that  his  aspiration  involved 
that  crucifixion,  that  pathetic  sacrifice. 

And  so  from  these  thoughts,  and  other  like  thoughts,  the 
conviction  has  come  to  me,  that  never,  since  the  Carpenter's 
Son  taught  charity  and  the  simply  sweet  religion  of  love  along 
the  waters  of  Galilee,  has  any  man  been  so  signalized;  so 
clearly  set  apart,  commissioned,  empowered  and  inspired  to 
carry  forward  the  beneficent  designs  of  the  Almighty,  as  was 
true  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 


154  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY   CYRUS   NORTHROP,   PRESIDENT  UNIVERSITY   OF   MINNESOTA. 
(Read  February  12,  1903.) 


Theodore  Roosevelt  was  born  amid  comparative  affluence,  and 
he  had  the  grandest  opportunities  for  gaining  the  highest  educa 
tion,  and  fitting  himself  for  the  discharge  of  the  most  responsible 
duties  in  public  life  and  it  is  to  his  enduring  credit  that  he  so  im 
proved  these  great  opportunties  as  to  make  himself  the  warrior, 
the  scholar,  the  writer  and  the  statesman  that  he  is. 

But  Abraham  Lincoln  was  born  in  a  Kentucky  cabin,  of  the 
poorest  kind  of  Virginia  ancestors.  He  had  no  opportunities  for 
an  education — a  poor  white — motherless  at  the  age  of  nine,  with 
nobody  on  earth  to  care  for  him  or  help  him,  except  a  totally  illit 
erate  father.  And  he,  from  such  a  beginning,  rose  to  be  the  choice 
of  the  American  people  for  president  in  the  very  crisis  of  the 
nation's  life. 

Why  linger  over  the  events  of  his  life?  You  know  how  his 
days  were  passed  from  the  time  that  he  stood  by  his  mother's  grave 
until  he  emerged  into  a  certain  degree  of  publicity.  You  know 
the  occupations  that  he  was  engaged  in — none  of  them  of  any 
special  importance  or  dignity;  rail-splitting,  storekeeping,  boating, 
surveying — anything  that  would  give  him  support.  The  only  in 
spiration  to  his  life  in  all  these  years  was  the  whispering  of  that 
ever  to  be  revereH  stepmother,  calling  upon  him  to  study  and  to 
read  as  he  could,  and  the  words  that  she  whispered  into  the  for 
lorn  boy's  heart  brought  fruit,  and  the  uncultivated  boy  rose  gradu 
ally  in  intellect.  After  a  while  he  is  elected  a  member  of  the  Illinois 
legislature,  though  that  does  not  convey  any  idea  of  the  ability  of 
the  man  at  that  time.  A  little  later  he  is  elected  a  member  of  con 
gress.  He  served  one  term,  from  '47  to  '49,  and,  as  the  record 
shows,  he  gained  no  distinction.  Why  should  he?  There  was 
nothing  for  Abraham  Lincoln  to  gain  distinction  about  in  '47  and 
'49.  But  he  voted  as  his  conscience  dictated ;  he  voted  for  the 
Wilmont  Proviso  excluding  slavery  from  the.  territories.  He 
voted  for  receiving  anti-slavery  petitions  into  an  American  con 
gress  with  the  entire  South  sitting  there  and  protesting  against  it. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  155 

He  voted  for  the  abolition  of  the  slave  trade  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  he  stood  resolute  and  hrm  against  the  Mexican  War. 
In  all  these  things  he  was  in  advance  of  his  constituents;  and  as 
a  matter  of  course  he  was  not  re-elected.  He  retired  from  con 
gress;  he  lost  his  interest  in  politics,  if  he  ever  had  any  special  in 
terest,  and  for  a  considerable  time  devoted  himself  exclusively  to 
the  practice  of  law,  having,  after  a  somewhat  dilatory  study  of 
that  branch  of  learning  been  admitted  to  the  bar  when  he  was 
twenty-nine  years  of  age,  and  in  a  few  years  he  gained  the  posi 
tion  of  leading  member  of  the  bar  of  Springfield,  the  capital  of  Illi 
nois. 

It  was  the  time  of  compromises;  when  the  men  that  repre 
sented  the  country  in  the  city  of  Washington  in  congress  were  try 
ing  to  patch  up  agreements  by  which  it  might  be  possible  for  the 
country  to  live  safely,  one-half  slave  and  one-half  free.  Clay  was 
using  all  his  marvelous  eloquence  and  his  wonderful  powers  of  per 
suasion  in  favor  of  his  Omnibus  bill  by  which  the  slavery  ques 
tion  might  be  settled  forever.  John  C.  Calhoun,  that  man  with 
an  iron  grasp  of  logic,  was  using  all  his  logic  in  favor  of  the  idea 
of  a  confederacy  of  which  the  states  were  almost  independent  parts, 
instead  of  a  nation  to  which  the  states  were  subordinate,  and  Daniel 
Webster,  that  majestic  intellect  of  New  England,  was  making 
Seventh-of-March  speeches,  thus  losing  the  support  of  the  North 
and  not  gaining  the  support  of  the  South,  while  he  fondly  hoped 
still  in  his  old  age  that  he  should  become  president  of  the  United 
States.  Whigs  and  Democrats  throughout  the  country  were  vying 
with  each  other  to  see  which  could  be  most  abjectly  subservient  to 
the  slave  power.  When  the  Omnibus  bill  was  passed,  it  really 
seemed  as  if  the  slavery  question  were  settled  forever — as  if,  by 
comrnqn  consent,  no  occasion  for  disagreement  would  be  permitted 
to  arise. 

But  howr  things  change  in  this  world  in  a  short  time !  How 
the  actors  that  stand  so  conspicuously  before  an  admiring  world 
disappear!  Calhoun,  Clay,  Webster — the  three  great  giants  of 
the  senate,  one  after  another,  in  the  order  named,  died  between 
the  spring  of  1850  and  the  autumn  of  1852,  and  all  the  measures 
that  they  had  provided  for  the  maintenance  of  peace  in  the  country 
endured  but  two  years,  when  again  the  heavens  were  red  and 
the  earth  on  fire  with  a  most  tremendous  explosion  of  slavery, 
the  slavery  of  Vesuvius.  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  of  Illinois,  urged 
thereto  by  Archibald  Dixon,  of  Kentucky,  introduced  into  con 
gress  that  memorable  and  detestable  bill — the  Kansas  and  Nebraska 


156  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

bill — which,  having  been  passed  by  congress,  and  having  been  ap 
proved  by  President  Pierce,  removed  every  barrier  in  the  terri 
tories  between  freedom  and  slavery,  and  made  it  possible  for  a 
slave-holder  to  go  with  his  slaves  wherever  he  pleased  and  hold 
them,  and  at  the  same  time  made  it  possible  for  immigrants  organ 
ized  for  the  purpose  from  any  state,  to  go  into  a  new  territory  and 
fix  forever  the  character  of  that  territory  when  it  should  become  a 
state.  There  was,  following  that  measure,  such  an  uprising  in  the 
North  as  the  half  century  before  had  never  known — an  uprising 
that  was  hardly  surpassed  by  that  which  took  place  seven  years 
later  when  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon.  Politics  had  been  mean 
ing  nothing  but  a  decision  as  to  which  party  should  dispose  of  the 
spoils.  Here  was  lifted  up  before  the  American  people  and  made 
a  part  of  their  future  life  a  question  which  touched  the  moral  and 
religious  sentiment  of  the  North  as  nothing  had  ever  touched  it; 
and  men  who  had  cared  nothing  for  politics  while  the  only  chance 
of  success  lay  in  subserviency  to  the  South,  men  who  had  not  been 
willing  to  co-operate  with  the  abolitionists  because  they  were  re 
gardless  alike  of  the  constitution  and  laws  in  their  violence  of 
speech,  men  who  now  saw  the  danger  that  threatened  the  country 
came  forth  from  their  retirement  and  from  the  occupations  that  had 
busied  their  lives  and  joined  hands  one  with  another  in  a  deter 
mination  that  the  evil  that  sooted  the  great  name  of  this  republic 
had  gone  far  enough,  and,  God  helping  them,  it  should  go  no 
further;  and  among  the  brave  spirits  whom  the  great  crisis  called 
forth  and  once  more  placed  in  publicity  as  a  political  leader,  was 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

He  had  cared  nothing  about  politics  while  politics  meant  noth 
ing  but  a  dispostion  of  the  spoils.  He  had  never  forgotten  that 
early  visit  to  New  Orleans  and  the  sight  there  witnessed  of  men, 
women,  and  children  sold  and  separated,  and  without  regard  to  af 
fections,  interests  of  relationship,  just  as  if  they  were  cattle,  and  with 
as  little  regard  for  them  as  if  they  had  been  cattle.  The  scene  that 
he  had  there  witnessed,  and  which  had  stirred  in  his  heart  a  deter 
mination  to  put  down  that  institution  if  ever  the  opportunity  came, 
was  what  made  the  new  Abraham  Lincoln  that  came  to  the  front 
in  Illinois  as  a  leader  in  the  senatorial  fight  with  Douglas  a  very  dif 
ferent  man  fr^m  the  Lincoln  who  went  to  congress  in  '47. 

If  there  we^e  no  sorrow  in  the  world  there  would  be  no  need  of 
sympathy;  if  there  were  no  poisons  we  should  not  need  any  anti 
dotes;  if  there  were  no  wrongs  and  oppressions,  heroic  self-sacri- 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  157 

lice  would  never  be  called  for,  and  if  there  had  been  no  slavery 
issue,  Abraham  Lincoln  would  have  remained  in  his  office  in  Illi 
nois  to  the  end.  It  was  the  great  crisis  calling  for  a  great  man,  and 
the  great  man  came,  and  he  met  the  crisis  as  it  deserved  and  com 
pletely  fulfilled  his  duty  in  that  respect. 

There  was  a  marked  difference  between  Air.  Lincoln  and  Mr. 
Douglas  in  the  essentials  of  their  characters.  Douglas  did  not  care 
whether  slavery  was  voted  up  or  voted  down.  Lincoln  did  care. 
He  wanted  slavery  voted  down.  He  stood  for  right,  for  justice,  for 
humanity.  He  was  as  skillful  in  debate  as  the  "Little  Giant;"  he 
was  stronger  than  he  in  pure  logic,  he  was  greater  in  moral  eleva 
tion.  His  speeches  were  a  revelation  to  the  country.  He  forced 
Douglas  into  a  position  which  undoubtedly  gained  for  Douglas  the 
senatorship,  but  later  on  lost  him  the  presidency;  and  when  the 
contest  for  the  senatorship  was  over,  Abraham  Lincoln  went  East, 
where  he  had  never  been  before,  and  where  he  was  known  only 
by  the  records  of  his  debates  with  Douglas.  He  went  to  New  York 
.and  made  in  Cooper  Institute  a  speech  on  the  position  of  the  fath 
ers  in  relation  to  slavery  that  is  as  complete  a  demonstration  as 
any  theorem  or  problem  in  calculus.  He  went  to  New  Haven  and 
spoke  there,  and  in  other  cities  in  Connecticut,  and  it  was  there  that 
1  first  saw  Abraham  Lincoln  and  heard  him.  I  had  heard  Tom  Cor- 
win  only  a  little  time  before,  and  had  been  disappointed ;  he  lacked 
earnestness — moral  earnestness.  I  had  heard  Wendell  Phillips 
time  and  again,  and  had  been  delighted,  but,  though  a  prince  of 
eloquence,  he  lacked  entirely  a  practical  plan  for  doing  anything.  I 
had  heard  Beecher  in  all  his  enthusiasm  and  power  of  the  spiritual 
and  half  militant;  and  here  wras  this  man  from  the  West,  without 
any  of  the  advantages  that  these  men  had  all  had,  without  any  of 
the  advantages  that  these  men  had  all  had,  without  any  of  the  per 
sonal  graces  that  belonged  to  some  of  them;  tall,  lank,  homely, 
and  yet  this  man  had  the  power,  in  the  plainest,  most  forceful  and 
most  simple  language  to  make  you  understand  just  what  he  under 
stood,  to  make  you  feel  exactly  as  he  felt,  to  enlighten  your  under 
standing  so  that  you  accepted  every  position  of  his ;  to  take  captive 
your  very  soul  and  hold  it  to  the  end,  and  that,  too,  without  a  single 
artifice  or  understanding  of  anything  known  to  the  rhetoricians. 
Plain,  clear,  forceful ;  the  great  cause  for  which  he  spoke  qualified 
him  as  he  glorified  it.  He  made  a  political  contest  grand  by  im 
parting  to  it  a  moral  quality.  It  was  no  longer  a  struggle  for 
votes,  it  was  a  battle  for  righteousness.  In  no  other  kind  of  a 


158  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

contest  could  Abraham  Lincoln  have  come  to  the  front,  and  in  no 
other  could  he  have  won  the  fadeless  crown  of  glory  which  he  now 
wears  and  will  wear  through  all  the  coming  centuries. 

Elected  president,  he  never  forgot  that  he  was  a  Southern  man 
by  birth,  and  his  heart  ached  all  through  the  great  struggle  for  the 
sufferings  of  the  Southern  people.  Yet  he  never  faltered  in  press 
ing  forward  in  the  contest,  and  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of 
the  great  end  to  be  secured;  first  union,  then  union  and  universal 
freedom.  He  had  no  malice  in  his  heart.  His  first  inaugural  ad 
dress  would  have  won  to  him  any  people  not  already  in  the  grasp 
of  the  frenzy  of  revolution.  It  came  too  late;  the  die  was  cast. 
The  long  series  of  agitating  questions  which  had  distracted  the 
country  for  seventy  years  were  now  to  be  settled  on  the  battle 
field,  the  only  place  where  they  could  be  finally  settled.  Into  the 
great  struggle  the  South  entered  with  a  cheery  spirit,  and  with  un~ 
doubting  expectation  of  victory;  into  the  same  struggle  the  North 
entered  with  a  blind  determination  to  win,  and  with  a  slightly  aug 
mented  expectation  of  the  magnitude  of  the  struggle.  The  par 
ticipants  on  both  sides  of  the  contest  have  proved  that  a  heroic 
victory  under  such  circumstances  was  hard  to  attain,  and  defeat 
could  not  be  disgraceful.  The  leaders  in  the  contest  on  both  sides 
came  into  view  like  stars  in  the  heavens,  and  many  of  them  faded 
out  of  sight;  but  the  real  planets,  with  their  glory  shining,  remained 
in  the  sky  to  the  end  and  are  there  still ;  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan, 
Thomas,  Lee,  Jackson  and  Johnston, — these  at  least  are  still  shin 
ing  ;  and  now  as  the  peaceful  influence  of  time  is  felt  they  are  plant 
ing  together  their  rays  of  glory  on  the  country  which  they  all 
loved,  and  for  which  they  would  all  have  gladly  fought  against  a 
foreign  foe.  And  during  it  all,  the  long  four  years  of  death  and 
sorrow7,  Lincoln  waited  for  the  hour  of  victory  only  that  he  might 
be  merciful.  Bitterly  opposed  by  his  enemies,  sometimes  betrayed 
by  his  friends,  often  annoyed  by  the  impatience  of  the  over-zealous, 
he  experienced  a  large  measure  of  ingratitude  in  return  for  gener 
osity,  while  he  was  bearing  on  his  own  great  heart  the  sorrows  of 
his  country,  of  friends  and  of  foes  alike.  He  came  out  of  the 
crucible  of  affliction  purified  like  fine  gold ;  and  when  at  the  dedi 
cation  of  the  cemetery  at  Gettysburg,  after  a  great  oration  by  Ed 
ward  Everett,  the  prince  of  orators,  Lincoln  spoke  for  five  minutes, 
he  in  that  short  time  effaced  from  men's  memory  all  the  rounded 
periods  of  Everett's  scholarly  eloquence  as,  with  the  plainness  of 
one  of  the  common  people,  with  the  pathos  of  a  great  heart  suf- 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  159 

faring  almost  to  breaking,  and  with  the  inspiration  of  a  Hebrew 
seer,  he  spoke  those  memorable  sentences  of  consecration  and  hope 
that  will  live  in  the  world's  highest  eloquence  so  long  as  the  English 
language  shall  be  spoken. 

The  years  went  on,  the  rebellon  broke  down  at  last — was  crush 
ed,  in  fact;  Lee  and  Johnston  surrendered,  the  Union  was  safe,  free 
dom  had  been  assured,  joy  filled  the  hearts  of  the  victors,  the  cup  of 
blessing  was  filled  to  overflowing — was  just  ready  for  the  nation's 
lips  when,  on  the  evening  of  Good  Friday,  the  day  on  which  our 
Savior  was  crucified,  the  bullet  of  an  assassin  sped  on  its  fatal  way, 
and  before  the  sun  of  another  day  was  well  on  its  course  in  the 
heavens  the  spirit  of  Abraham  Lincoln  had  gone  back  to  the  God 
who  gave  it,  and  there  was  left  to  a  sorrow-stricken  people  only 
his  lifeless  body  over  which  to  mourn:  and  the  nation  literally 
'"lifted  up  its  voice  and  wept." 

In  the  home  of  a  distinguished  citizen  of  Minneapolis  there 
hangs  a  large  picture,  the  portrait  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Many  of 
you  doubtless  have  seen  it.  It  is  an  admirable  likeness.  I  wish  I 
could  describe  it  to  you  as  an  artist  might,  but  I  cannot.  The  face, 
though  serious,  has  none  of  the  wan  and  sad  look  that  came  to  it 
in  later  days ;  it  is  pleasant  and  genial.  But  the  one  thing  to  which 
face  and  figure  alike  bear  witness  is  strength — not  intellectual  nor 
physical  strength  mainly,  but  moral  strength,  backed  by  both  of 
these.  There  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  the  subject  is  not  a  gentle 
man,  but  nobody  would  ever  think  of  labeling  it  "The  Portrait  of 
a  Gentleman,"  but  anybody  might  label  it  "The  Portrait  of  a  Man." 
Great  strength  of  character  is  here  joined  with  intellectual  power 
and  sweetness  of  spirit;  and  such  was  Abraham  Lincoln — strong, 
rugged,  forceful,  true,  yet  gentle,  tender,  and  of  almost  infinite 
charity. 

Winston  Churchill,  in  his  notable  book,  "The  Crisis,"  has  de 
scribed  a  scene  in  the  White  House  in  the  closing  days  of  the  Civil 
War  which  gives  us  a  clear  view  of  Mr.  Lincoln  as  he  was  when 
the  great  drama  of  the  country  and  of  his  life  was  drawing  to  a 
close.  A  confederate  young  lady,  of  great  beauty  and  brilliancy, 
but  of  pronounced  Southern  feeling,  has  been  pleading  for  the  life 
of  her  cousin,  a  Confederate  officer,  who  had  been  captured  under 
circumstances  which  almost  convicted  him  of  being  a  spy.  At  the 
president's  suggestion  that  it  was  a  pity  that  the  officer  should  have 
taken  off  his  uniform  and  entered  Sherman's  lines  as  a  civilian— 
a?  a  spy — the  young  lady  exclaimed  "Then  he  will  be  shot!  You 


160  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

are  not  content  with  what  you  have  gained — you  are  not  content 
with  depriving  us  of  our  rights  and  of  our  fortunes,  while  forcing 
us  back  to  an  allegiance  we  despise;  you  are  not  content  with  put 
ting  innocent  men  in  prisons,  but  now  I  suppose  you  will  shoot  us 
all,  and  all  this  mercy  that  I  have  heard  about  means  nothing, 
nothing!" 

"Miss  Carvel,"  said  the  president,  "I  am  afraid,  from  what  I 
have  heard  just  now,  that  it  means  nothing."  Oh!  the  sadness  of 
that  voice,  the  ineffable  sadness ;  the  sadness  and  the  woe  of  a  great 
nation  and  the  sorrow  in  those  eyes,  the  sorrow  of  a  heavy  cross 
borne  meekly,  how  heavy  none  will  ever  know ;  the  pain  and  the 
crown  of  thorns  worn  for  a  world  that  did  not  understand';  and 
when  at  last  the  president  grants  the  pardon,  as  he  had  from  the 
first  intended  to  do,  he  said  slowly — and  the  words  remind  me 
of  his  Gettysburg  speech — "I  am  sparing  his  life  because  the  time 
for  which  we  have  been  waiting  and  longing  for  four  years  is  now 
at  hand,  a  time  to  be  merciful.  Let  us  thank  God  for  it."  No  won 
der  the  daughter  of  the  South  was  affected.  She  crossed  the  room, 
her  head  lifted,  her  heart  lifted,  to  where  this  man  of  sorrows  stood 
smiling  down  on  her.  "Mr.  Lincoln,"  she  faltered,  "I  did  not 
know  you  when  I  came  here.  O  how  I  wish  that  every  man,  woman 
and  child  in  the  South  might  come  here  and  see  you  as  I  have  seen 
you  today.  I  think,  I  think,  that  some  of  their  bitterness  might  be 
taken  away"  Perhaps  it  might  have  been  if  they  could  have  seen 
him  as  he  was.  God  only  knows.  But  it  was  not  to  be.  Like 
Moses,  the  liberator  of  the  Hebrews,  who  was  permitted  to  see  the 
promised  land,  but  not  to  enter  it,  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  liberator 
of  the  enslaved  negroes,  was  permitted  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
country  redeemed  but  was  not  permitted  to  share  in  either  the 
triumphs  or  the  struggles  of  the  new  nation.  It  is  as  if,  like  our 
blessed  Savior,  the  redemption  which  he  wrought  could  be  com 
pleted  only  by  his  death. 

God  grant  that  neither  sacrifice  may  have  been  made  in  vain. 
God  grant  that  this  nation  may  firmly  tread  the  path  of  honor  and 
justice  for  which  the  work  and  sufferings  of  the  martyred  dead 
have  so  grandly  prepared  the  way,  and  that  the  coming  men,  the 
young  men  of  America,  may  "highly  resolve"  that  Lincoln  shall 
not  have  died  in  vain,  but  that  the  nation  shall  under  God  yet  have 
a  new  birth  of  honor,  and  "that  the  government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  161 


ADDRESS. 

BY   SAMUEL   C.   EDSALL,   EPISCOPAL   BISHOP   OF    MINNESOTA. 

(Read  February  12,  1903.) 


When  a  great  man  dies,  high  in  official  station,  it  is  natural  and 
usual  that  the  community  in  which  he  lives  should  attach  an  exag 
gerated  importance  to  his  life  and  service,  and  claim  for  him  a 
larger  place  in  history  than  subsequent  historians,  writing  calmly 
and  coolly,  will  award  and  especially  will  this  be  true  if  the  great 
one  has  fallen  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin  and  about  him  there  shines 
the  halo  of  a  martyrdom.  It  is  therefore  doubly  remarkable  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  has  proved  such  a  signal  exception  to  this  rule; 
for,  instead  of  growing  less  as  he  sinks  into  the  perspective  of  his 
tory,  it  seems  as  if  he  would  loom  larger  and  larger  upon  our  hor 
izon  as  the  years  go  by;  and  when  history  comes  to  be  written 
carefully,  and  the  men  and  the  events  of  his  period  are  brought  out 
into  their  true  relation,  the  well-nigh  infinite  patience  of  Lincoln — 
the  long-suffering  and  sorely-tried  Lincoln — and  his  marvelous 
insight  into  what  was  practicable  and  portentous  at  any  moment, 
and  his  far-sighted  wisdom  in  working  gradually  in  the  accomplish 
ment  of  his  great  purposes  are  revealed  before  us  in  a  measure 
which  is  almost  superhuman — superhuman  at  least  in  this  sense, 
that  they  are  beyond  previous  human  experience. 

But  though  we  may  hear  an  eloquent  eulogy  of  Lincoln, — hear 
it  spoken  or  read  it  on  the  printed  page,  the  noblest  eulogy  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  was  that  which  was  rendered — not  in  speech  or  writ 
ten  word,  but  in  the  act,  in  the  deed,  in  the  life  of  his  martyred  suc 
cessor,  William  McKinley.  For,  when  placed  by  Providence  in 
circumstances  similar  and  only  less  trying,  he  rendered  from  his 
heart  that  loving,  loyal  imitation  of  the  great  man  who  had  gone 
before  which  has  made  us  of  this  day  realize,  as  perhaps  we  never 
could  have  realized  otherwise,  the  immortal  character  of  Lincoln's 
greatness,  and  the  permanent  nature  of  the  legacy  in  lessons  of 
statesmanship  which  he  left  for  the  guidance  of  his  country,  and 
for  the  enlightenment  of  history. 


162  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


THE  VENGEANCE  OF  THE  FLAG. 

BY  HENRY  D.  ESTERBROOK,  ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,   NEW  YORK  CITY. 

(Read  February  13,  1906.) 


February  is  an  American  holy  month,  for  in  it  were  born  Wash 
ington  and  Lincoln — two  names  so  blended  in  popular  affection  that 
to  mention  one  is  to  recall  the  other.  Washington,  the  patrician, 
whose  mind  and  heart,  like  the  cups  of  a  chemist's  balance,  seemed 
to  weigh  each  other,  to  whom  religion  was  a  rule  of  action,  a  divine 
command;  Lincoln,  the  plebian,  whose  mind  and  heart  had  been 
fused  in  the  crucible  of  love,  with  whom  religion  was  a  passionate 
intuition.  I  have  chosen  to  speak  of  Lincoln — to  relate  the  man 
ner  of  his  death,  and  the  vengeance  of  the  flag. 

Was  it,  my  friends,  an  inspiration  or  caprice  when,  on  the  very 
threshold  of  that  most  sober,  somber,  sullen  story  of  colonial  life, 
"The  Scarlet  Letter,"  Hawthorne  suddenly  stoops,  and  plucking 
a  rose  which  grew  beside  the  prison  door,  presents  it  to  his  reader? 
It  was  a  graceful  act,  a  propitiatory  act,  and  withal  an  act  of  deep 
significance.  Somehow  the  perfume  of  the  flower  pervades  the  en 
tire  story,  so  when  at  last  you  close  the  book,  with  the  mist  still  in 
your  eyes,  and  fain  would  murmur,  "A  sad,  cruel,  useless  sacrifice," 
lo !  the  fragrance  of  the  rose,  like  an  exhalation  from  an  unseen 
altar,  breathes  through  your  spirit  and  you  sigh  instead,  "Perhaps, 
after  all  'twas  best;  yea,  perhaps  'twas  necessary." 

With  something  of  the  motive  I  have  attributed  to  Hawthorne 
I  wish  to  relate  an  incident  which  befell  me  in  the  city  of  Chicago, 
as  a  prelude  to  my  recital  of  the  darkest  page  in  American  history. 
Ii  was  in  Lincoln  Park.  The  statue  of  liberty's  great  martyr  had 
recently  been  unveiled,  and  I  had  come  to  study  it.  To  my  mind, 
unskilled  in  the  niceties  of  criticism,  the  work  seemed  perfect.  The 
dear,  homely,  lovely  face  with  its  wilderness  of  wrinkles,  those 
hieroglyphics  of  character;  the  tall  , angular,  awkward  figure  to 
which  the  garments  clung  hopeless  of  adaptation — cccc  homo!  Re- 
hold  our  kingly  rail-splitter,  himself  a  sort  of  human  rail  cleft  from 
a  genealogical  tree  as  yet  uncatalogued,  sound  to  the  core,  with  the 
bark  still  on,  and  all  the  splinters  left  as  God  had  left  them.  It  was 
Abraham  Lincoln  as  I  had  dreamed  of  him  in  bovhood,  as  I  had 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  103 

read  of  him  in  history;  simple,  majestic,  actual,  as  if  his  immortal 
spirit  had  clothed  itself  in  a  vestment  of  immortal  bronze.  There, 
in  the  restful  quiet  of  a  park  already  dedicated  to  his  memory — a 
nodal  point  among  the  mighty  vibrations  of  a  great  city — amidst 
the  green  twilight  of  arching  trees  and  whispering  leaves,  towered 
the  beloved  form  of  liberty's  Messiah. 

As  I  lowered  my  eyes  to  trace  the  words  embossed  upon  the 
pedestal  (the  words  of  that  short  speech  destined  to  live  so  long 
— at  once  the  epilogue  and  the  epitaph  of  Gettysburg)  I  became 
aware  of  an  old  gentleman  who  stood  gazing  up  into  the  dark  be 
nignant  face  that  bent  above  us.  He  was  a  quaint  old  man;  lusty, 
thickset,  smooth-shaven,  wearing  a  wide-brimmed  felt  hat  and  a 
homespun  costume,  neat  enough  but  far  from  fashionable.  His 
bright,  ruddy  face  glowed  from  out  its  snow-drift  of  white  hair 
like  a  live  coal  among  its  ashes.  There  was  certainly  nothing  in 
his  physignomy  to  suggest  melancholy,  and  yet,  as  he  gazed,  the 
tears  streamed  clown  his  cheeks  unheeded. 

The  spectacle  touched  my  sympathies  and  roused  my  curiosity. 
With  perhaps  unpardonable  rudeness  I  attempted  to  discover  the 
secret  of  his  perturbation.  I  ventured  to  ask  if,  in  his  opinion,  the 
statue  before  us  was  a  good  likeness  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  replied 
simply:  "I  presume  it  is;  I  never  met  him." 

"And  yet,"  I  persisted,  "the  contemplation  of  the  statue  seems 
to  singularly  affect  you?" 

The  old  gentleman  turned  to  me  impressively  and  said :  "Young 
man,  I  am  a  Kentuckian,  born  and  reared  and  hoping  to  die  in  the 
old  Blue  Grass  Commonwealth.  If  Kentucky  had  left  the  Union 
I  should  have  followed  and  fought  for  her.  All  through  those 
frightful  years  and  for  long  years  afterward  I  looked  upon  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  as  a  tyrant  and  despot;  and  when  the  news  came  of 
his  taking  off  I  flung  up  my  hat  and  echoed  the  yell  of  the  assassin 
— 'Sic  semper  tyrannis!'  Not  until  recent  years  have  I  come  to 
realize  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  best,  the  truest  friend  that 
the  South  or  humanity  has  ever  had.  And  now  I  can  never  think 
of  him,  never  hear  the  menton  of  his  name,  that  my  heart  does  not 
well  within  me  and  overflow  my  eyes." 

I  had  already  seized  his  hand  and  was  wringing  it  in  both  of 
mine.  "Sir,"  I  cried,  "if  what  you  feel  is  the  true  disposition  of 
Kentucky,  I  swear  to  you  I  voice  the  sentiment  of  Nebraska  when 
I  say  that,  in  the  name  of  Lincoln,  we  are  once  more  and  forever 
friends.  God  bless  voti — brother!" 


164  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

And  then  and  there,  in  presence  of  that  sacred  effigy,  Kentucky 
and  Nebraska  clasped  hands  across  the  bloody  chasm,  while  the 
great  bronze  statue  smiled  down  its  benediction. 

How  often  have  I  appealed  to  this  incident  when,  in  reading 
the  particulars  of  Lincoln's  assassination,  I  have  felt  my  teeth 
clench  and  my  sinews  harden  with  rising  anger.  I  commend  it 
to  you  now  that  I  am  about  to  recall  the  circumstances  of  that  fatu 
ous  and  apparently  senseless  crime.  I  say  that  the  crime  was  ap 
parently  senseless;  although,  could  we  fathom  the  divine  motive 
in  human  history,  I  doubt  not  that,  involved  with  this  catastrophe, 
there  was  more  than  human  wisdom;  for  have  I  not  already  called 
Lincoln  Liberty's  Messiah? 

It  was  on  the  night  of  April  i/j-tti,  1865,  tnat  tne  snot  was  fired, 
and  its  reverberation  will  last  forever.  On  the  mornng  following, 
ai.  precisely  7 122  of  the  clock,  Abraham  Lincoln  yielded  up  the 
ghost.  The  fatal  moment  is  notched  on  the  scythe  of  time.  Even 
the  watchmakers,  those  wardens  of  the  hours,  have  embalmed  that 
moment  in  the  sign  of  their  calling.  In  every  city  of  the  Union, 
North  and  South,  East  and  West,  you  have  seen  those  great  dumb, 
wooden  horologes  pointing  backward  to  the  dread  event. 

Look  at  them  whenever  you  will,  it  is  always  7 :22 !  Could 
Coleridge  describe  a  thing  more  idle  than  those  painted  hands  upon 
a  painted  dial  ?  Idle?  No,  not  unless  a  cathedral  spire,  a  marble 
shaft,  or  the  cross  itself  is  idle;  for  those  idle  hands  hold  out  a 
memory  which  only  pardon  asked  and  pardon  given  can  ever,  ever 
sweeten. 

The  murder  of  Lincoln  was  the  most  appalling  tragedy  ever  wit 
nessed  in  a  theater.  History,  as  if  desparing  of  another  Shakes 
peare,  dramatized  itself.  We  are  told  that  his  death  interrupted 
a  comedy;  but  what  death  has  not?  Among  all  the  chimeras  and 
phantasms  of  this  life,  death — a  thing  seemingly  the  most  unreal 
— is  the  one  inexorable  reality.  And  yet,  let  it  come  when  or  how 
it  will,  there  is  always  in  the  event  a  mocking  incongruity.  But 
this — this  immolation  of  Abraham  Lincoln — was  the  very  mas 
querade  of  death,  grotesque,  spectacular,  I  would  almost  say  fan 
tastic.  The  glare  of  footlights,  the  fripperies  of  a  playhouse,  the 
tinsel  and  pasteboard  of  the  age,  the  gullery  of  the  greenroom, 
the  mummery  of  the  actors — it  was  into  this  realm  of  Fiction  that 
the  awful  Fact  obtruded.  It  was  the  coup  de  theatre  of  death ! 
And  must  we  call  this  fate?  Alas,  I  can  almost  hear  the  frantic  cry 
of  Victor  Hugo  :  "Fate — sinister  burst  of  laughter !" 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  165 

On  this  mortal  night  the  president  had  sought  to  be  amused. 
He  wished  to  laugh,  to  be  made  to  laugh ;  and  for  this  he  has  been 
criticized.  Why  should  he  wish  to  laugh  when  every  click  of  the 
telegraph  was  the  death  tick  of  a  soldier?  Why  should  he  not? 

There  is  no  laughter  in  the  natural  world 

Of  beast  or  fish  or  bird,  though  no  sad  doubt 
Of  their  futurity  to  them  unfurled 

Has  dared  to  check  the  mirth-compelling  shout. 
The  lion  roars  his  solemn  thunder  out 

To  sleeping  w7oods;  the  eagle  screams  her  cry; 
Even  the  lark  must  strain  a  serious  throat 

To  hurl  his  blest  defiance  at  the  sky. 
Fear,  anger,  jealousy  have  found  a  voice. 

Love's  pain  or  rapture  the  brute  bosoms  swell. 
Nature  has  symbols  for  her  nobler  joys, 
Her  nobler  sorrows.     Who  had  dared  to  foretell 
That  only  man,  by  some  sad  mockery, 
Should  learn  to  laugh  who  learns  that  he  must  die. 

President  Lincoln  was  not  only  aware  that  he  must  die,  but  he 
had  every  reason  to  believe  that  his  death  would  be  at  the  hands 
of  an  assassin.  He  had  been  warned  repeatedly  that  such  would  be 
his  fate;  indeed,  an  attempt  had  already  been  made  upon  his  life; 
and  that  he  kne\v  of  it  was  shown  by  papers  found  in  his  desk, 
revealing  the  plot,  and  by  himself  labeled  "Assassination."  Dis 
cussing  the  subject  with  his  friend,  Father  Chiniquy,  he  had  said: 

"I  see  no  other  way  than  to  be  always  prepared  to  die.  I  know 
my  danger;  but  man  must  not  care  how  or  where  he  dies,  provided 
he  dies  at  the  post  of  honor  and  of  duty." 

And  still  he  laughed,  and  his  laughter  was  the  music  of  his 
heart,  the  sweet  expression  of  his  sweet  humanity.  Such  a  man 
can  afford  to  laugh ;  for,  "Thanks  be  to  God,  Who  giveth  us  the 
victory,"  human  laughter  is  a  challenge  to  death,  the  clarion  of  im 
mortality.  Moreover,  the  president  had  earned  a  respite  from  the 
anxieties  which  for  four  years,  like  four  eternities,  had  brdoMecl 
over  him. 

The  volcano  of  war  has  ceased  to  vomit  forth  its  lava  of  human 
blood.  The  vertigo  of  death  is  past.  The  thunder  of  battle  in 
one  baffled  roar  is  muttering  over  the  distant  field  of  Appomattox. 
There  has  been  too  much  of  tragdy,  and  now  this  laughter-loving 
man  would  gain  surcease  from  the  long  tension  on  his  heart 
strings  by  forgetting  fact  in  fiction,  the  real  in  the  apparent. 


166  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

The  box  which  the  presidential  party  was  to  occupy  had  been 
appropriately  draped  with  the  Union  flag,  so  arranged  as  to  frame 
the  portrait  of  George  Washington,  whoso  serene  and  august 
face  smiled  from  out  its  folds,  as  from  an  aureola  of  glory.  When 
the  president  and  his  guests  entered,  the  whole  audience  rose  to 
greet  him.  It  was  a.  shout  of  jubilee,  of  gratitude,  of  reverence, 
of  love,  of  adoration;  and  God  was  not  jealous  of  it. 

Midway  of  the  performance,  and  shortly  after  10  o'clock,  a 
>oung  man  came  down  the  outer  aisle,  and  presented  his  card  to 
the  president's  messenger.  Before  the  messenger  could  fairly 
glance  at  the  card,  the  young  man  had  pushed  past  him  and  entered 
the  narrow  passage  immediately  behind  the  box  in  which  the  presi 
dent  was  seated.  The  door  to  this  passage  was  not  locked,  fof  the 
lock  had  only  that  day  been  removed  to  prevent  such  a  contingency. 
The  young  man,  however,  fastened  the  door  behind  him  with  a 
wooden  brace,  which  he  had  previously  prepared  for  the  purpose. 
He  next  went  to  the  door  opening  into  the  box,  and  peered  at  the 
occupants  through  a  small  aperture,  also  previously  made  for  the 
purpose. 

Surely  the  noble  Lincoln  must  have  felt  some  vague  conscious 
ness  of  this  propinquity.  If  the  very  atmosphere  of  the  incarnate 
devil  did  not  herald  his  approach,  that  basilisk  eye,  framed  by  a 
gimlet  hole,  must  have  sent  a  shudder  through  the  victim's  heart. 
We  may  never  know.  In  a  moment  the  door  was  opened,  the  mur 
derer  entered.  Then — ah !  then — 

There  was  a  sharp  detonation,  a  moment's  dread  paralysis,  a 
wild  commotion,  a  clutch  at  the  fleeing  assassin,  a  fierce  impreca 
tion,  and  the  savage  slash  of  the  knife  as  he  freed  himself  from  the 
detaining  grasp,  his  leap  to  the  stage,  his  mock  heroics,  his  rehearsed 
magniloquence,  his  Chauvinistic  bravado,  and  the  startled,  bewild 
ered  cry,  "The  president  is  murdered!" 

Holy  God !  How  couldst  Thou  suffer  it  ?  He  so  loving  and  so 
lovable,  so  gentle,  patient,  brave  and  true !  So  slow  to  anger,  so 
eager  to  forgive !  Throughout  our  national  eclipse  his  great  heart 
was  stayed  on  Thee,  his  sole  purpose  to  fulfill  Thy  will ! 

Only  a  little  while  before,  he  had  said  to  the  people  of  the  South  : 

"We  are  not  enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies. 
Though  passion  may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds 
of  affection." 

Was  this  the  language  of  a  tyrant,  the  fiat  of  a  conqueror?  His 
tory  has  no  parallel  to  this  sublime,  unasked-for  condonation,  save 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  167 

when  on  Calvary  that  divine  whisper  faltered  through  the  dark 
ness :  "Father,  forgive  them;  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

Instantly  with  the  pistol  shot,  the  president  had  fallen  forward. 
The  dear  head  drooped,  never  to  rise  again;  the  loving  heart  flut 
tered  into  rest,  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  offered  by  the  All  Wise  as 
a  mediator  and  an  exemplar  to  his  distracted  countrymen,  was  with 
the  "undying  dead." 

But  what  of  the  assassin? 

Maniacally  bold  as  now  seems  this  murder,  the  chances  of  cap 
ture  had  been  weighed  by  the  murderer  and  reduced  to  a  minimum. 
His  route  to  the  South  had  been  chosen  and  carefully  studied.  His 
confederates  were  numerous  and  discreet.  His  finances  were  ample, 
his  equipment  complete. 

As  for  the  leap  from  the  proscenium  box,  that  was  a  matter  so 
insignificant  as  scarcely  to  have  entered  into  the  calculation,  for 
the  assassin  was  a  trained  athlete,  exulting  in  his  prowess.  In 
his  histrionic  career  he  had  often  sprung  upon  that  very  stage  from 
twice  the  height,  simply  to  startle  the  audience  into  applause. 

And  yet,  we  are  told  that,  except  for  the  accident  of  his  foot 
catching  in  the  flag,  a  strip  from  which  was  thus  torn  out  and 
fluttered  from  his  heels  as  he  dragged  his  wounded  limb  across 
the  stage,  his  escape  would  have  been  inevitable. 

But  why  call  it  an  accident?  Does  not  Plato  tell  us  that  even 
granite  rocks  have  souls  that  shape  their  appearance  and  give  them 
individuality?  Shall  a  heathen  philosopher  grant  such  an  attri 
bute  to  sticks  and  stones  and  a  patriot  deny  all  sensibility  to  his 
country's  flag? 

It  was  no  accident,  but  a  miracle  of  gratitude — the  vengeance 
of  the  flag!  Washington  was  there.  Washington,  the  father  who 
begat  and  brought  it  forth,  seemed  for  the  moment  to  live  again 
in  its  embrace.  Lincoln,  the  savior  who  had  redeemed  it  from  the 
sin  of  slavery,  was  even  then  dying  that  it  might  live,  the  last  puls 
ings  of  his  heart  quivering  in  all  its  breathing  folds.  It  was  no 
accident!  In  the  absence  of  human  intervention,  the  flag  itself 
became  an  actor.  It  reached  forth  and  grappled  with  the  assassin. 
It  clave  to  him  like  the  bloody  garment  of  old  mythology.  It 
shrieked,  and  was  rent  in  twain,  but  clung — clung — clung,  writh 
ing  about  and  binding  him  like  a  pvthon  in  its  coils.  The  flag  was 
the  captor,  the  flag  was  its  country's  Nemesis ! 

All  hail  the  flag,  our  proud  and  happv  flag ;  radiant  in  its  beantv, 
sparkling  with  its  stars,  conscious  of  itself,  its  God  and  its  Amer- 


168  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

ica !  Look  up,  poor  human  race,  look  up  to  it  in  reverence  and 
with  a  prayer  of  gratitude !  Behold  it  unfurled  above  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  the  splendor  of  it's  sheen  as  lambent  as  the  sunlight 
that  plays  upon  it;  its  undulations  as  billowy  and  voluminous  as 
the  clouds  of  heaven;  its  gorgeous  colors  painted  upon  the  air  as 
impalpable  as  the  rainbow,  hope's  phantom  flag!  What  wonder 
that  it  seems  like  a  gift  from  the  spirit  world,  as  though  Father 
Abraham  had  reached  it  forth  from  beyond  the  stars  and  said: 
"Take  it,  my  children;  take  and  keep  it  in  remembrance  of  me. 
Study  its  history,  learn  its  lesson,  know  its  value;  study  it,  learn 
it,  know  it,  and  love  it  always." 

And  shall  we  not?  The  blood  of  thousands  has  been  spilled  in 
its  defense — no,  not  spilled,  for  within  its  crimson  arteries  that 
heroic  blood  still  flows,  giving  strength  and  vitality  to  our  nation's 
emblem,  making  it  not  an  emblem  merely,  but  a  living  creature. 
Its  bars  of  white,  "as  chaste  as  unsunned  snow,"  have  never  yet 
been  sullied  witli  the  stain  of  shame. 

The  golden  stars  that  irradiate  the  night  are  not  more  lustrous 
than  those  sister  stars  that  constellate  its  azure  firmament.  Our 
noble  flag!  So  long  as  it  shall  flout  the  sky,  laugh  in  the  sun,  nor 
droop  an  alien  in  the  sight  of  God,  so  long  shall  free  men,  free 
homes,  free  schools,  free  churches,  yea,  freedom  itself,  find  refuge 
in  the  shadow  of  its  strength.  God  bless  our  flag!  His  own  har 
binger  of  universal  peace,  the  standard  of  humanity,  the  oriflamme 
of  liberty !  God  bless  our  flag ! 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  169 


LINCOLN,  THE  LEADER. 

BY  RICHARD  WATSON  GILDER,  ASSOCIATE  EDITOR  THE  "  CENTURY. 
(Read  February  12,  1907.) 


The  thought  may  pass  through  some  minds  that  it  is  pre 
sumptuous  for  a  man  from  the  East  to  consent  to  come  to 
the  West  to  speak  to  you  concerning  a  Western  man, — the 
greatest  of  Western  men.  But  I  come,  surely  in  no  sectional 
spirit,  to  utter  a  word  of  homage  to  the  memory  of  one  who 
had  not  the  slightest  taint  of  sectionalism  in  his  mental  habit; 
who  was  national  in  his  characteristics,  his  sympathies,  his 
outlook  and  his  aspiration. 

I  heard  a  few  years  ago  of  a  senator  of  the  United  States 
who  made  his  proud  boast  that  he  had  never  set  foot  in  the 
city  of  New  York-  Distances  and  differences  were  greater 
between  cities  and  sections,  in  Lincoln's  time.  But  Lincoln 
had  no  feeling  of  aversion  to  any  place  or  community  in  Amer 
ica.  You  know  how  quickly  he  set  foot  in  Richmond,  as  soon 
as  he  was  able  to  do  so.  He  did  not  hesitate  to  set  foot 
in  New  York,  and  when  there  he  was  apparently  not  so  much 
impressed  by  the  idea  that  he  was  a  long  way  from  home,  as 
by  the  idea  that  he  was  among  his  fellow-citizens  of  the  Repub 
lic,  having  common  problems  and  a  common  destiny.  I  find 
in  the  record  of  that  Cooper  Union  address  no  reference  to 
the  fact  that  he  was  in  any  country  but  his  own. 

It  was  not  many  years  after  the  Civil  War  that  I  first  came 
to  New  York.  There  I  met  with  youth's  curiosity  and  ad 
miration  for  genius ;  among  other  literary  lights  of  the  day, 
Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,  who  had  struck  out  that  dynamic 
lyric  on  Osawotomie  Brown,  prophetic  of  the  war,  who  had 
addressed  to  the  president  the  demand  for  a  captain.  "Abra 
ham  Lincoln,  give  us  a  man !"  a  demand  which  it  took  Lincoln 
so  long  and  through  so  many  disappointments  to  satisfy;  and 
who  had  written  the  ringing  sonnet  on  the  assassination,  in 
which  Lincoln  is  described  as  "the  whitest  soul  a  nation  knew" ; 
Bayard  Taylor,  who  had  been  of  special  service  to  Lincoln 
at  the  important  court  of  St.  Petersburg;  Richard  Grant  White, 


170  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

who  had  interpreted  the  Union  cause  in  his  "New  Gospel  of 
Peace,"  and  had  gathered  the  war  songs  into  a  unique  volume; 
Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  who  had  written  a  noble  ode  on  the 
death  of  Lincoln;  Dr.  J.  G.  Holland,  who  had  written  a  life 
of  Lincoln,  the  first  of  any  consequence  to  be  put  forth  after 
his  death;  Noah  Brooks,  who  had  been  close  to  Lincoln  in 
Washington ;  Bret  Harte,  author  among  other  famous  pieces 
of  certain  memorable  rhymes  of  the  war;  George  William  Cur 
tis,  who  had  taken  part  in  both  the  conventions  that  nominated 
Lincoln,  and  officially  notified  him  of  his  second  nomination; 
and — a  rare  and  picturesque  revisitor  of  his  beloved  Manhat 
tan — Walt  Whitman,  who  had  written,  "Captain,  My  Captain," 
and  the  passionate  chant  on  the  death  of  the  president,  "When 
Lilacs  Last  in  the  Dooryard  Bloomed."  A  majestic  figure  of 
the  time  was  the  poet  Bryant,  who  had  presided  on  the  occa 
sion  of  Lincoln's  Cooper  Union  speech,  when  each  had  been 
greatly  impressed  by  the  other,  Lincoln  saying  that  "It  was 
worth  the  journey  to  the  East  merely  to  meet  such  a  man," 
and  Bryant  becoming  one  of  Lincoln's  chief  supporters  for  the 
presidential  nomination. 

A  certain  young  journalist  and  author  in  the  literary  group 
greatly  attracted  me.  I  remember  writing  to  him  in  those  days 
a  boyish,  enthusiastic  letter  enrolling  him  in  the  company  of 
"good  fellows";  the  good-hearted,  the  art-loving,  the  genial. 
There  was  a  special  fascination  about  him,  which,  as  in  all 
cases  of  charm,  it  is  hard  to  analyze.  He  had  a  quiet,  intense 
sense  of  humor;  a  wit  that  was  genial  and  could  be  stinging,, 
and  a  curious  poise  and  reticence.  He  was  as  self-confident 
as  he  was  courteous  and  modest. 

To  him  I  said  one  day,  "Colonel,  as  you  continue  your 
study  of  and  your  writing  about  Lincoln,  does  he  seem  to  you 
larger  or  less?" 

To  this — and  I  remember  the  seriousness  of  his  manner- 
John  Hay  answered :  "As  I  go  on  with  the  work,  to  me  Lin 
coln  grows  greater  and  greater." 

Since  then,  as  the  historical  students  and  the  people  of  his 
country  and  of  the  world  have  studied  and  better  known  his 
commanding  personality,  Abraham  Lincoln  has  grown  greater 
and  greater  in  the  estimation  of  mankind.  Very  greatly,  in 
deed,  has  the  writing  of  John  Hay  himself,  and  of  the  elder 
devoted  co-biographer,  John  G.  Nicolay,  helped  in  this  better 
understanding.  Lincoln's  praises  are  multiplied  in  all  lands  by 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  171 

statesmen,  historians,  orators,  poets.  Added  to  the  usual  ad 
miring  regard  in  which  he  is  held,  one  constantly  comes  upon 
a  peculiar  interest  in,  an  actual  affection  for  him  on  the  part 
of  persons  in  the  various  walks  of  life — some  of  these  con 
temporaries  of  his,  and  some  children  born  during,  or  since, 
the  war.  The  other  night  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  influential 
men  of  the  Southern  states,  told  me  that  to  him  Lincoln  was 
one  of  the  three  most  interesting  personalities  in  all  history 
—one  of  the  others  being  no  less  than  "the  Man  of  Galilee." 

It  is  natural  that  a  writer  should  be  especially  attracted 
to  Lincoln  by  a  study  of  his  recorded  utterances,  in  other 
words,  by  an  interest  in  his  literary  style.  Too  young  to  ap 
preciate  what  may  be  called  the  artistic  quality  of  his  speeches 
and  writings  at  the  time  of  their  delivery,  it  was  after  the 
war  that  I  woke  up  to  a  full  appreciation  of  Lincoln's  power 
of  expression,  a  power  which  was  one  of  the  main  elements  of 
his  strength  as  a  leader. 

It  is  not  strange  that  unusual  powers  of  expression  should 
be  found  to  belong  to  those  who  have  risen  to  leadership 
among  men.  This  expressiveness  may  be  of  various  kinds. 
Lincoln  and  Gladstone,  having  been  contemporaries,  born  in 
the  same  year  and  each  rising  to  the  highest  leadership  in  the 
two  great  English-speaking  nations,  it  is  natural  that  they 
should  be  compared  as  to  their  use  of  language,  spoken  and 
written.  Gladstone's  elaborate  and  persuasive  eloquence,  his 
manifold  learning  and  well-stored  memory,  the  copiousness  of 
his  diction  and  the  dignity,  as  well  as  the  fire  and  energy  of 
his  forensic  appeals,  these  were  among  the  wonders  of  a  good 
part  of  the  last  century.  But  I  asked,  lately,  on  separate  oc 
casions,  of  two  of  Gladstone's  most  eminent  parliamentary 
supporters  and  admirers,  without  contradiction  and,  indeed, 
with  full  agreement  on  the  part  of  both — whether  it  was  not 
one  of  the  miracles  of  genius  that,  notwithstanding  Gladstone 
had  enjoyed  all  that  culture  could  accomplish,  by  means  of 
university  training  and  familiarity  with  the  art  and  literature 
of  the  ancient  and  modern  world  and  long  training  and  leader 
ship  in  public  life,  he  had  not  left  a  single  masterpiece  of  Eng 
lish,  hardly  one  great  phrase  that  clings  to  the  memory  of  men, 
while  Lincoln,  without  any  educational  advantages  whatever, 
growing  up  in  the  backwoods,  with  scarcely  a  dozen  books  of 
value  at  his  command  and  ignorant  of  the  literature  and  art 
of  modern  Europe,  as  of  ancient  times,  had  acquired  a  style 


172  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

of  higher  distinction  than  that  of  Gladstone,  and  had  be 
queathed  more  than  one  masterpiece  to  the  literature  of  the 
English  tongue. 

Lincoln's  style  in  speech  and  writing  is  the  same  sort  of 
miracle  that  gave  us  the  consummate  works  of  Shakespeare, 
the  uncolleged  actor;  of  Burns,  the  plowman,  and  of  Keats, 
the  unlearned  apothecary's  apprentice,  son  of  a  livery  stable 
man.  It  is  not  easy  to  analyze  a  miracle,  but  in  discussing  the 
leadership  of  Lincoln  it  is  interesting  to  find  certain  qualities 
in  his  literary  style  that  are  traits  of  his  character,  and  thus 
elements  of  his  leadership. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  country  has  been  ransacked  for 
every  record  of  his  public  speech,  and  every  scrap  of  paper  he 
ever  put  pen  to,  there  has  been  found  nothing  discreditable, 
and  little  that  can  be  criticised  in  the  way  of  expression.  With 
out  the  aid  of  any  teacher,  he  early  learned  to  be  moderate 
and  reasonable  in  statement,  so  that  on  the  part  even  of  the 
obscure  young  politician  there  is  nothing  of  that  kind  of  pub 
lic  speech  which  is  described  in  a  passage  he  loved  to  quote, 
where  it  is  said  of  the  orator  that  "he  mounted  the  rostrum,, 
threw  back  his  head,  shined  his  eyes,  and  left  the  consequences 
to  God." 

Lincoln's  relish  for  a  phrase  like  this  recalls  his  extra 
ordinary  sense  of  humor.  Probably  no  great  historical  figure 
in  the  realm  of  action  ever  had  Lincoln's  intense  humorous- 
ness,  combined  with  so  keen  and  racy  a  wit-  Lincoln's  laugh 
was  something  amazing;  his  face,  in  repose  well  balanced  and 
commanding,  with  the  grimace  of  laughter  is  said  to  have  be 
come  a  surprising  thing.  Many  anecdotes  relate  the  boister- 
ousness  of  his  appreciation  of  a  humorous  situation  or  story. 
Hay  tells  of  his  cheery  laugh  that  filled  the  Blue  room  with 
infectious  good  nature.  "Homeric  laughter,"  Hay  says  it 
sometimes  was;  adding  this  genial  touch,  that  it  was  "dull 
pleasure"  to  Lincoln  "to  laugh  alone."  Some  visitors  at  the 
White  House  were  filled  with  wonder  at  the  quick  transition 
from  unbridled  mirth  to  pathetic  seriousness;  what  wonder 
that  "the  boisterous  laughter  became  less  frequent  year  by 
year,  the  eye  grew  veiled  by  constant  meditation  on  moment 
ous  subjects ;  the  air  of  reserve  and  detachment  from  his  sur 
roundings  increased,"  and  as  Hay  says,  and  his  pictures  and 
the  two  life  masks  show,  he  rapidly  grew  old. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  173 

Lincoln's  sense  of  humor,  which  flavored  now  and  then 
his  speeches  and  writings,  and  constantly  his  conversation, 
went  along  with  a  homely  wit  which  frequently  brought  to  his 
argument  quaint  and  convincing  illustration.  His  sense  of 
humor  was,  indeed,  a  real  assistance  in  his  leadership,  having 
many  uses;  it  relieved  the  strain  of  his  strenuous  labors;  it 
helped  to  attach  the  masses  to  his  personality;  and  it  assisted 
him  out  of  many  difficulties.  We  did  not  know  till  lately  that 
he  himself  so  keenly  appreciated  the  part  that  story-telling 
played  in  his  career.  Col.  Burt  reports  a  strange  interview 
wTith  Lincoln  at  the  Soldiers'  Home  at  a  time  of  keen  anxiety, 
and  when  a  person  present  had  rudely  demanded  one  of  his 
"good  stories." 

"I  believe,"  said  Lincoln,  turning  away  from  the  challenger, 
"I  have  the  popular  reputation  of  being  a  story-teller,  but  I 
do  not  deserve  the  name  in  its  general  sense,  for  it  is  not  the- 
story  itself,  but  its  purpose,  or  effect,  that  interests  me.  I 
often  avoid  a  long  and  useless  discussion  by  others  or  a  labor 
ious  explanation  on  my  own  part  by  a  short  story  that  illus 
trates  my  point  of  view.  So,  too,  the  sharpness  of  a  refusal 
or  the  edge  of  a  rebuke  may  be  blunted  by  an  appropriate 
story,  so  as  to  save  wounded  feelings  and  yet  serve  the  pur 
pose.  No,  I  am  not  simply  a  story-teller,  but  story-telling  as 
an  emollient  saves  me  much  friction  and  distress." 

The  most  striking  characteristic  of  Lincoln's  style  may  be 
found  in  the  record  from  the  beginning.  Candor  was  a  trait 
of  the  man,  and  not  less  of  his  verbal  manner.  His  natural 
honesty  of  character,  his  desire  to  make  his  meaning  clear — 
literally  to  demonstrate  what  he  believed  to  be  the  truth  with 
mathematical  precision — this  gave  his  style  both  attractiveness 
and  force.  The  simplicity  of  his  nature,  his  lack  of  self-con 
sciousness  and  vanity,  tended  to  simplicity  and  directness  of 
diction.  An  eminent  lawyer  has  said  that  without  the  massive 
reasoning  of  Webster,  or  the  resplendent  rhetoric  of  Burke, 
Lincoln  exceeded  them  both  in  his  faculty  of  statement.  His 
style  was  affected,  too,  by  the  personal  traits  of  consideration 
for  those  of  a  contrary  mind,  of  toleration,  and  of  large,  human 
sympathy. 

But  Lincoln's  style  might  have  had  all  these  qualities,  and 
yet  not  have  carried  as  it  did.  Beyond  these  traits  come  the 
miracle — the  cadence  of  his  prose,  and  its  traits  of  pathos  and 
imagination.  Lincoln's  prose  at  its  height  and  when  his  spirit 


174  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

was  stirred  by  aspiration  and  resolve  affects  the  soul  like  no 
ble  music.  Indeed,  as  I  have  elsewhere  said,  there  may  be 
found  in  all  his  great  utterances  a  strain  which  is  like  the 
leading  motive,  the  Leit  motif  in  musical  drama,  a  strain  of 
mingled  pathos,  heroism  and  resolution.  It  is  that  strain  in 
the  two  inaugurals,  in  the  Gettysburg  address  and  in  his  letter 
of  consolation  to  a  bereaved  mother  which  moves  the  hearts 
of  succeeding  generations. 

Lincoln's  power  of  expression  was  evidently  one  of  the 
most  effective  elements  of  his  leadership.  The  sympathy  and 
toleration  which  made  his  writings  and  speeches  so  persuasive 
helped  his  leadership  not  only  in  convincing  his  listeners  and 
in  endearing  him,  the  leader,  to  individuals  and  the  masses, 
but  helped  him  as  a  statesman  to  take  large  and  humane  views 
and  to  adopt  measures  in  keeping  with  such  views.  To  that 
sympathy  and  that  toleration  a  reunited  country  is  under  con 
stant  obligation,  not  merely  for  the  result  of  a  successfully  con 
ducted  war — successful  in  the  true  interests  of  both  antagonists 
— but  for  the  continuing  possibility  of  good  feeling  between 
the  sections.  To  think  that  in  the  preparatory  political  strug 
gle  and  during  the  four  years  of  the  dreadful  conflict  Abraham 
Lincoln,  though  his  spirit  was  strained  almost  beyond  human 
endurance  by  the  harassments  of  his  position;  though  misun 
derstood  and  foully  calumniated  by  public  antagonists  and 
thwarted  and  plotted  against  by  his  own  apparent  supporters, 
uttered  not  one  word  of  violence  or  rancor,  not  a  phrase  which 
after  the  cessation  of  hostilities  might  return  to  embitter  the 
defeated  combatants  or  be  resented  by  their  descendants. 

This  extraordinary  forbearance  of  the  president  has  often 
been  spoken  of  as  an  amiable  trait  of  the  man,  but  do  we  fully 
realize  the  value  to  the  nation  of  that  trait  and  the  worth  of  its 
example  in  public  leadership?  After  so  tremendous  a  conflict 
the  world  abroad  wonders  at  the  quickness  of  the  return  to 
sympathetic  relations — to  closer  relations  than  ever — between 
the  sections  so  lately  at  war.  But  we  of  the  country  know  that 
the  obstacles  to  true  Union  after  the  war  were  not  so  much 
the  events  of  the  war,  though  some  of  them  naturally  enough 
left  a  trail  of  bitter  resentment,  but  events  succeeding  the  con 
flict  of  years  in  those  years  of  experimental  reconstruction, 
when  things  were  done  in  the  name  of  the  dominant  powers 
which  the  South  has  found  it  hard  to  forget  and  the  North  ar- 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  175 

dently  wishes  could  be  blotted  from  all  remembrance.  In  other 
words,  we  are  today  a  truly  united  country,  not  only  because 
Lincoln  conducted  the  war  to  a  successful  issue,  but  because  of 
Lincoln's  wise  and  tolerant  and  sympathetic  leadership  during 
that  war. 

A  striking  illustration  of  his  sympathy  for  the  people  of 
the  Confederate  states  was  his  attempt,  earnest  and  ineffectual, 
in  the  last  days  of  hostilities,  two  months  before  his  death, 
to  convert  his  own  cabinet  to  his  generous  and  long  cherished 
scheme  of  compensated  emancipation.  That  he  failed  pathet 
ically  to  carry  through  this  plan  upon  which  his  heart  was  set 
illustrates  also  the  fact  that  uninterrupted  success  is  not  neces 
sary  to  the  fame  of  the  great  figures  of  history.  Lincoln's 
failure  to  win  support  for  this  humane  policy  deeply  grieved 
him,  but  the  misadventure  is  not  held  against  him  in  the  esti 
mate  of  his  greatness.  The  fact  that  he  made  the  attempt, 
on  the  contrary,  counts  in  his  favor,  and  today  endears  him  to 
multitudes  of  his  countrymen  and  is  one  of  the  bonds  that  hold 
the  country  together. 

But  Lincoln's  sympathy  and  tolerance,  his  forgiveness,  his 
distaste  for  personal  contention,  his  lack  of  resentment,  his 
great  heart  were  shown  not  only  in  his  attitude  toward  those 
whom — for  their  own  good,  as  he  believed — he  unrelentingly 
opposed  with  all  the  forces  at  his  command,  but  also  toward 
his  political  opponents  in  the  North  and  toward  those  among 
his  ostensible  supporters  whose  zeal  led  them  into  positions 
of  open  or  concealed  antagonism.  The  opposition  to  him  in 
his  own  party  was  much  more  intense  than  is  generally  known 
to  the  present  generation.  As  an  illustration  of  such  opposi 
tion,  I  may  refer  to  an  unpublished  letter  I  lately  read,  written 
in  the  stress  of  war-time,  by  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of 
Republicans,  who  declared  Lincoln  to  be  a  greater  danger  to 
the  Union  cause  than  Jefferson  Davis  himself. 

As  to  his  masterly  management  of  the  personalities  whose 
followers  he  placated  and  whose  peculiarities  and  diverse  abil 
ities  he  skillfully  utilized  for  the  common  cause,  this  part  of  his 
leadership  is  illustrated  by  a  hundred  stories,  either  true  in 
fact  or  typically  true.  Here  came  into  play  his  sense  of  humor, 
his  insight  into  motive  and  character — in  a  word,  his  tact — 
along  with  that  tolerance  and  that  sympathy  of  which  I  have 
spoken  as  affecting  his  habit  of  oral  and  written  expression. 


176  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

That  he  could  manage  to  hold  so  long  together  four  such 
individualities  as  his  own,  Seward's,  Stanton's  and  Chase's 
proves  a  genius  of  leadership  truly  exceptional.  It  is  now 
known,  as  it  was  not  till  Nicolay  and  Hay  revealed  the  fact, 
how  Seward  was  taught  to  respect  and  loyally  acquiesce  in 
the  leadership  of  one  whom  he,  not  unnaturally,  at  first,  ex 
pected  to  lead.  Lincoln's  leadership  of  the  irascible  and  faith 
ful  Stanton  was  a  simpler  matter;  here  the  president's  inex 
haustible  patience  and  his  abounding  sense  of  humor  were 
both  required  to  save  the  situation — though  looking  back  on 
the  relations  of  these  strong  and  utterly  divergent  person 
alities,  one  feels  that  the  sense  of  humor  was  perhaps  the 
saving  grace.  As  for  Chase,  and  his  convinced  and  enthusiastic 
following,  it  was  inevitable  that  some  such  rallying  ground 
should  exist  in  a  time  of  stress,  for  those  who,  as  in  the  case 
of  Chase  himself,  were  temperamentally  unsympathetic  with 
the  personality  and  methods  of  Lincoln.  Here,  perhaps,  was 
Lincoln's  greatest  personal  anxiety,  but  his  leadership  did  not 
fail  him;  as  the  story  of  the  second  nomination  and  election 
abundantly  testifies. 

Let  it  not  be  omitted  in  the  enumeration  of  the  elements 
of  Lincoln's  leadership  that  he  did  not  disdain  to  learn  from 
experience.  In  his  first  inaugural,  while  stating  the  policy  of 
the  administration  with  regard  to  acts  of  violence  against  the 
authority  of  the  United  States,  he  definitely  announced  that 
the  course  indicated  would  be  followed  "unless  current  events 
and  experience"  should  "show  a  modification  or  change  to  be 
proper,"  and  that  in  every  case  and  exigency  his  best  discre 
tion  would  be  exercised  "according  to  circumstances  actually 
existing."  Lincoln,  like  other  great  leaders  and  administrat 
ors,  would  rather  be  right  than  be  consistent.  His  was  a  con 
sistency  of  principle  rather  than  of  program.  His  aim  was 
justice,  and  if  he  could  not  reach  it  by  one  path  he  would  push 
on  by  another. 

Special  features  of  his  leadership  were  two  acquired  skills 
and  two  acquired  knowledges — the  skill  and  knowledge  of 
the  long-practiced  lawyer,  which  helped  him  immeasurably  in 
his  executive  decisions,  as  Trevor  Hill  has  so  clearly  pointed 
out;  and  his  quickly  and  almost  instinctively  acquired  skill 
in  and  knowledge  of  military  strategy.  His  letters  to  generals 
in  the  field  are  those  of  a  master  of  strategy,  using  the  irony 
of  Socrates  and  the  symbolism  of  Aesop. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  177 

An  intensely  important  feature  of  Lincoln's  leadership 
would  be  omitted  if  nothing  were  said  of  the  effect  upon  his 
thought  and  conduct  of  his  belief  in  and  conscious  communion 
with  an  almighty,  mysterious  and  beneficent  Power,  concern 
ing  itself  not  less  with  human  affairs  than  with  the  march 
of  seasons  and  the  sweep  of  constellations.  The  deity  was  to 
him  an  ever-present,  ever-pregnant  influence.  There  was  noth 
ing  of  theology  or  dogmatism  in  his  religious  opinion,  but  he 
lived  in  the  spirit.  The  strange  silence  of  the  Almighty  sover 
eign  perplexed  him ;  and  he  sought  with  passionate  eagerness 
to  read  the  decrees  of  Providence  in  the  unfoldings  of  events, 
sometimes  taking  definite  action  in  accordance  with  his  in 
terpretation  of  divine  indications.  And  always  the  belief  in 
God  was  to  him  a  challenge  to  singleness  of  purpose;  to  the 
All  Pure  he  lifted  clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart. 

The  reference  to  Lincoln's  religious  nature  leads  to  the 
declaration  that  Lincoln  the  leader  possessed  sterner  and 
higher  traits  than  those  to  which  we  first  called  attention.  He 
had  the  lofty  qualities  of  spiritual  insight,  of  moral  conviction, 
of  solemn  resolution,  of  undying  courage,  of  complete  devotion 
and  faith  and  of  hope  unfailing.  He  saw  deeply,  he  felt  in 
tensely,  he  spoke,  at  times,  with  the  voice  of  a  poet-prophet. 

Fate — or  is  it  some  World  Spirit  of  Comedy? — plays  strange 
pranks  with  human  affairs  now  and  then;  and  nothing  more 
singular  ever  happened  either  in  history  or  romance  than  the 
giving  of  imperial  powers,  the  destiny  of  a  race,  the  leadership 
of  a  nation,  the  keys  of  life  and  death  to  a  sad-eyed,  laughter- 
loving,  story-telling,  shrewd,  unlettered,  great-hearted  fron 
tiersman  and  lawyer.  A  leader  always  he  was,  from  the  time 
he  commanded  a  grotesque  company  of  motleys  in  an  Indian 
frontier  campaign.  And  there  at  Washington  was  he  leader 
of  public  opinion  in  a  world-wide  field;  wielder  was  he  also 
of  fleets  and  armies,  having  in  his  strong  and  sympathetic 
hands  the  lives  of  hundreds  of  thousands. 

That  inordinately  tall  countryman,  with  a  shawl  thrown 
over  his  gaunt  figure,  crossing,  alone,  the  little  park  between 
the  White  House  and  the  war  department — if  appealed  to  by 
some  distressed  private  soldier  or  citizen  could  order  justice 
done  by  a  written  sentence  as  surely  as  could  any  Asiatic  auto 
crat  by  issued  edict.  While  often  yielding  to  the  dictates  of 
his  pitying  heart  in  individual  cases,  and  showing  constantly 
almost  abnormal  patience,  any  one  who  mistook  his  charity 


178  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

for  weakness  was  liable  to  sudden  enlightment.  The  signifi 
cant  fact  was  only  lately  published  that  Colonel  Hay  once  saw 
the  long-suffering  Lincoln  take  an  office  seeker  by  the  coat 
collar,  carry  him  bodily  to  the  door,  and  fling  him  in  a  heap 
outside. 

And  here  is  the  wonder — this  merciful  man,  daily  saving 
the  lives  of  deserters  so  as  not  to  increase  in  the  land  the  mel 
ancholy  list  of  widows  and  orphans;  this  tender-souled,  agon 
izing,  consecrated  leader,  looking  out  upon  armies  encamped 
and  a  suffering  people,  is  stern  as  fate  in  demanding  that 
battle  shall  be  made  and  war,  with  all  its  horrors,  resolutely 
continued,  till  right  is  accomplished  and  eternal  justice  done. 
Here  is  the  true  leader — gentle  and  affectionate  as  any  woman, 
as  averse  to  violence — yet  able  to  meet  the  unwelcome  duty 
of  the  sword-bearer  with  unflinching  spirit. 

The  great  test  of  Lincoln's  leadership  came  in  his  dealing 
with  the  fundamental  question  of  slavery,  as  related  to  the 
compact  of  the  states,  the  perpetuity  of  the  Union,  the  very 
existence  of  the  nation.  The  important  part  of  his  political 
career  before  the  war  had  to  do  with  this  complex  question. 
This  double  problem  made  the  war,  and  was  dominant  through 
out  its  course.  The,  as  he  called  it,  "perplexing  compound — 
Union  and  slavery,"  had  become  indeed  a  "question  not  of 
two  sides  merely,  but  of  at  least  four  sides,"  even  among  those 
who  were  for  the  Union,  saying  nothing  of  those  who  were 
against  it.  "There  were,"  he  said,  "those  who  were  for  the 
Union  with,  but  not  without  slavery — those  for  it  without,  but 
not  with ;  those  for  it  with  or  without,  who  preferred  itt 
with,  and  those  for  it  with  or  without,  who  preferred  it  with 
out."  Here  was  the  maze  through  which  he  had  to  find  his 
way;  these  were  the  conditions  from  which  he  was  to  work 
out  salvation  for  the  nation,  with  the  profound  conviction  that 
whether  slavery  were  or  not  immediately  extinguished,  its 
death  warrant  was  already  signed.  Lincoln's  view  of  slavery 
was,  from  the  first,  not  unlike  Washington's  and  that  of  other 
founders  of  the  republic.  His  attitude  was  unyielding  as  to 
principle.  He  looked  upon  the  institution  as  intrinsically  evil, 
inimical  to  the  interests  of  free  labor;  anomalous,  and  impossi 
ble  of  perpetuity,  in  a  politically  free  community;  something 
to  be  thwarted,  diminished  and  ultimately  made  to  cease  by 
just,  constitutional  and  reasonable  means.  He  satisfied  the 
extremists  on  neither  side  of  the  great  debate;  for  while  he 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  179 

would  never  compromise  as  to  principle  he  did  not  refuse  to 
compromise  as  to  time  and  method. 

Lincoln  the  Leader,  in  dealing  with  the  chief  perplexity 
of  the  situation — this  complex  question  of  slavery  and  the 
Union — was  helped  by  his  own  intensely  human  makeup.  The 
average  traits  of  mankind  were  in  him  strongly  developed. 
He  was  in  close  touch  with  his  kind;  he  sympathized  with  men 
on  the  plane  of  humanity,  and  regarded  them  in  the  spirit  of 
philosophy.  He  was  called  a  great  joker — but  Lincoln's  "see 
ing"  of  "the  joke"  meant  a  good  deal  more  than  with  ordinary 
minds ;  it  meant,  often  enough,  that  he  saw  through  the  solemn 
pretender  who  was  pained  at  his  frivolity.  And  the  jokes  that 
he  told  often  had  the  wisdom  of  ancient  parables. 

Lincoln's  democracy  was  a  matter  more  of  instinct  than 
of  reason.  He  comprehended  human  motives,  prejudices,  lit 
tleness  and  nobilities.  It  was  he  who  once  described  honest 
statesmanship  as  the  employment  of  individual  meannesses 
for  the  public  good.  Acquainted  with  humanity  he  knew  how 
to  bear  with  its  infirmities,  and  he  moved  toward  his  inflexible 
purpose,  over  what  to  others  would  have  been  heart-breaking 
obstacles,  with  a  long-suffering  patience  that  had  in  it  some 
thing  of  the  divine. 

As  memoir  after  memoir  of  the  war  time  has  come  to  light 
his  countrymen  year  by  year  have  been  better  able  to  obtain 
a  knowledge  of  the  workings  of  Lincoln's  mind,  and  of  the 
marvelous  skill  and  wisdom  of  his  leadership  during  his  presi 
dency.  That  which  his  chief  biographers  long  ago  declared  of 
him  we  now  more  certainly  know  to  be  the  truth,  namely  that, 
"with  the  fire  of  a  reformer  and  a  martyr  in  his  heart,  he  yet 
proceeded  by  the  ways  of  cautious  and  practical  statecraft." 

Descended  upon  him  from  the  North,  delegations  of  aboli 
tionists  to  tell  him  that  unless  he  at  once  freed  the  slaves  his 
administration  would  be  shorn  of  moral  support,  and  the  war 
would  end  in  failure  and  disgrace.  Hastened  to  the  White 
House  from  the  border  states  their  governors  and  congression 
al  representatives  to  warn  him  that  if  he  touched  slavery  they 
could  not  keep  their  constituencies  on  the  side  of  the  Union— 
and  the  border  states,  he  knew,  held  the  balance  of  power. 
Hurried  back  from  Spain,  Carl  Schurz — the  gallant  figure,  a 
contribution  of  the  best  of  the  old  world  to  the  service  of 
the  new  in  its  hour  of  need — hurried  Carl  Schurz  from  his  post 
at  the  Spanish  court  to  inform  the  president  that  according 


180  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

to  his  belief  there  would  be  great  danger  of  the  recognition 
of  the  Confederacy  unless  there  were  prompt  military  success,, 
or  some  proof  that  the  war  would  destroy  slavery;  while  other 
warnings  from  over  the  sea  were  to  the  effect  that  if  the  presi 
dent  should  stir  up  the  slaves  against  their  masters,  the  sym 
pathy  of  European  friends  of  the  North  would  be  justly  for 
feited. 

Through  all  this  divergency  of  counsel  Lincoln  watched, 
waited,  prayed  and  incessantly  worked  toward  the  end  his 
own  intellect,  his  own  heart  approved.  It  was,  as  we  have 
said,  a  highly  important  element  of  Lincoln's  leadership  that 
he  had  had  the  training  of  a  lawyer — by  a  practice  of  many 
years  and  many  kinds.  His  knowledge  of  men  had  thus  been 
vastly  increased;  while  his  grasp  of  legal  principles  was  of  in 
finite  help  when  his  talents  and  experience  were  enlisted  in 
a  mighty  cause.  It  was  no  petty  construction  of  legal  obliga 
tion  that  mad  him  strenuous  as  to  the  literal  fulfillment  of 
his  oath  to  execute  faithfully  the  office  of  president,  and  pre 
serve,  protect  and  defend  the  constitution  of  the  United  States. 
He  found  no  constitutional  authority  to  emancipate  the  slaves 
except  as  a  military  necessity,  and  he  steadfastly  refused  to 
free  the  slaves  till  he  could  with  an  honest  mind  declare  that 
the  necessity  had  arisen;  knowing  then,  also,  the  time  had  at 
last  arrived  wrhen  public  opinion  would  sustain  his  action. 

In  his  famous  letter  to  Greeley  in  1862,  he  stated  his  posi 
tion — explained  his  policy — with  absolute  lucidity.  "If  I  could 
save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it;  and 
if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it; 
and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone, 
I  would  also  do  that."  Similar  statements  were  made  to  others 
in  formal  and  informal  utterances.  Often  he  explained  to  im 
patient  critics  and  counselors  that  the  conditions  of  public 
opinion  would  not  justify  the  course  they  demanded. 

But  the  deep  lesson  of  his  leadership  lies  in  the  fact  that 
while  year  after  year  he  carefully  studied  public  opinion — > 
that  supreme  element  in  all  matters  of  government  and  all  the 
affairs  of  men — he  studied  it  not  to  yield  to  it  as  his  master, 
but  in  order  to  so  act  in  respect  to  it  as  to  accomplish  his  own 
well  considered  purpose ;  to  act  upon  it ;  to  bring  it  power 
fully  to  the  help  of  his  cherished  plans;  in  a  word  to  lead  it  and 
to  lead  it  right. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  181 

And  what  is  true  leadership  of  the  people?  Is  it  to  be 
carried  away  by  a  popular  wave;  to  avoid  opposing  it,  not  in 
order  to  circumvent  it — and  to  save  one's  strength  for  its  later 
direction — but  solely  and  selfishly  to  avoid  being  submerged 
by  it?  Is  it  to  change  when  it  changes,  in  order  to  retain 
place  and  the  semblance  of  power?  Is  he  truly  a  leader  who 
listens  to  "the  sacred  voice  of  the  people,"  in  .order  to  learn 
which  way  to  leap?  Not  thus  Lincoln.  His  was  not  the 
leadership  that  in  order  to  be  popular,  "changes  its  mind." 
but  a  leadership  that  changes  the  minds  of  others.  He  kept 
"near  the  people" — he  kept  his  "ear  to  the  ground" — not  from 
selfish  policy,  but  through  his  sympathy  with  the  interest  in 
human  beings;  in  order  to  learn  the  moods  of  many  minds 
and  gradually  to  lead  thought  and  action  in  the  direction  of  his 
own  profound  convictions.  Lincoln  respected  public  opinion, 
but  he  was  not  its  trembling  slave.  He  understood  human 
prejudices,  limitations,  the  effects  of  heredity  and  environ 
ment,  but  he  never  considered  a  wrong  public  opinion  final. 
Not  unknown  to  mankind  is  the  statesmanship  that  resists 
public  opinion  when  it  disapproves  of  it,  resists,  till  the  waves 
beat  threateningly,  and  then  turns  with  the  tide.  This  is  the 
statesmanship  of  Pontius  Pilate.  That  tragic  figure  stands 
before  the  eyes  of  all  mankind  washing  ineffectually  his  guilty 
hands,  while  he  releases  Barabbas  and  sends  Christ  to  Calvary. 

No  book  praising  Lincoln  has  lately  been  issued  which  has 
brought  to  me  a  higher  idea  of  his  method  with  public  opinion, 
as  well  as  his  wisdom  and  his  self-sacrificing  devotion,  than 
one  by  a  man  whose  life  has  been  a  romance  of  devotion  to 
ideals,  a  Southern-born  abolitionist,  who  does  not  hesitate  to 
dispraise  the  president.  He  is  opposed  to  war,  and  held  and 
still  holds  that  "no  drop  of  blood  would  have  been  shed  if 
the  president,  at  the  beginning,  had  proclaimed  freedom  for 
every  slave."  Yet  even  he  would  have  protected  the  centers 
to  which  the  slaves  would  flee,  as  if  that  itself  would  not  have 
been  an  open  invitation  to  war.  In  1862,  the  Rev.  Moncure 
Conway,  for  it  is  of  him  I  speak,  went  to  the  White  House 
with  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Channing  to  urge,  personally,  upon  the 
president  the  emancipation  of  slaves.  There  was  something 
pathetic  in  the  sweet  reasonableness  of  the  president  in  ex 
plaining  to  these  good  and  insistent  men — as  he  had  so  often 
to  do  to  men  of  like  scruples  and  beliefs — not  only  his  own 


182  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

great  desire  for  emancipation,  preferably  with  compensation, 
but  the  fact  that  perhaps  they  did  not  so  well  as  he  know  the 
temper  of  the  entire  public.  He  showed  them  that  those  who 
were  working  in  the  anti-slavery  movement  would  naturally 
come  in  contact  with  men  of  like  mind,  and  might  easily  over 
estimate  the  number  of  those  who  held  similar  views.  He 
gave  it  as  his  observation  that  the  great  masses  of  the  people, 
at  that  time,  cared  comparatively  little  about  the  negro.  And 
at  the  end  of  the  interview  he  said — can  you  not  hear  him 
say  it?  "We  shall  need  all  the  anti-slavery  feeling  in  the  country 
and  more.  You  can  go  home  and  try  to  bring  the  people  to 
your  views,  and  you  may  say  anything  you  like  about  me  if 
that  will  help.  Don't  spare  me!" 

Do  wre  seize  all  the  bearings  of  his  strange  situation;  that 
he  who  is  known  now  as  the  great  emancipator  set  before  him 
self  as  the  one  indispensable  aim,  not  the  immediate  freedom 
of  the  slave,  but  the  immediate  salvation  of  the  Union — the 
integrity  of  the  nation — though  when  the  time  came  for 
emancipation  to  assist  Union,  how  joyfully  and  confidently  he 
put  forth  emancipation,  with  what  courage  in  the  face  of  what 
heavy  risks !  In  many  thoughtful  minds  the  fact  that  his 
policy  \vas  the  Union  first  and  abolition  next  is  his  highest  title 
to  world-wide  fame.  Theirs  the  belief  that  his  saving  of  the 
nation  is  the  gigantic  feat  that  lifts  him  to  the  companionship 
of  the  most  important  characters  of  universal'  history.  "This 
Union,"  says  John  Coleman  Adams,  "is  the  consummation  of 
all  the  struggles  of  all  men  toward  a  state  of  universal  peace. 
It  is  the  life  and  aspiration  of  the  world  organized  into  a  na 
tion."  The  threat  to  undo  the  Union  was  a  "peril  to  man 
kind."  That  Lincoln  instinctively  felt  this  and  strained  every 
nerve  to  the  supreme  task  of  preserving  the  nation — and  this 
with  success — gives  him  rank  among  the  greatest.  That  he 
did  this  and  destroyed  slavery  also  proves  his  genius  and 
doubly  crowns  his  stupendous  accomplishment. 

He  did  all  this,  so  far  as  we  may  attribute  to  any  single 
person  the  guidance  of  affairs  so  tremendous,  though  in  this 
case  the  personal  preponderance  is  exceptionally  evident;  he 
did  all  this,  and  he  assumed  no  virtue  for  having  done  it;  nox 
a  thought  of  vanity  or  undue  exultation  ever  crossed  his  candid 
mind.  To  a  lesser  nature  the  temptation  would  have  been 
great  as.  at  the  last,  success  followed  success,  remembering 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  183 

the  reproaches  he  had  so  long  silently  borne,  and,  most  try 
ing  of  all,  the  suspicion  and  spiritual  scorn,  the  look  from 
above  downward,  of  those  who,  working  for  the  same  ends, 
regarded  him  as  less  sensitive  morally  and  less  faithful  than 
they  to  that  cause  to  which  he  had  dedicated  every  energy  ot 
his  soul. 

It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  this  kindly,  much  burdened 
and  harassed  ruler  had,  at  least  for  a  few  days  before  his 
taking  off,  the  satisfactions  of  full  success.  He  knew  more 
than  any  other  the  awful  dangers,  yet,  as  Godkin  said  while 
Lincoln  still  was  living,  he  was  perhaps  the  only  man  in  the 
North  who  had  "never  wavered  or  doubted  or  abated  one  jot 
of  heart  or  hope."  He  had  "been  always  calm,  confident,  deter 
mined,  the  very  type  and  embodiment  of  the  national  will,  the 
true  and  fit  representative  of  the  people  in  its  noblest  moods," 
the  ideal  "leader  of  a  democracy."  "Through  the  ages  to 
come,"  said  lately  one  who  knew  him  and  who  confesses  that 
it  has  taken  years  of  reflection  and  retrospective  considera 
tion  to  become  convinced  that  in  the  matter  of  the  proclama 
tion  as  a  war  measure  Lincoln  was  right  and  he  was  wrong, 
"through  the  ages  to  come  the  history  of  the  Union  and  free 
dom  under  the  Union  will  hold  up  to  the  admiration  of  man 
kind  as  the  greatest  saving  influence  in  our  greatest  danger, 
the  character,  the  firmness,  the  homely  sayings,  the  freedom 
from  passion,  the  singular  common  sense,  the  almost  divine 
charity  of  Abraham  Lincoln." 

In  these  times  of  new  conditions,  new  advantages  and  new 
dangers  in  every  community  of  our  country  and  in  the  national 
field  the  cry  today  is  for  leaders.  Nor  are  we  without  them  ; 
some  long  known  and  well  beloved;  some  just  emerging  into 
prominence  and  being  tried  by  the  first  tests  of  responsibility. 
Some  are  leaders  in  the  best  sense;  and  to  some  we  may  be 
inclined  to  apply  the  name  not  of  leaders,  but  of  misleaders. 
It  would  be  absurd  to  be  looking  now  here,  now  there  for 
"another  Lincoln";  for  a  reincarnation  of  that  rich  and  most 
individual  and  peculiar  character.  We  shall  not  see  again  that 
extraordinary  combination  of  sympathetic  qualities  with  the 
sterner  virtues;  such  rare  gifts  and  abilities;  such  sense  of 
humor,  such  mixture  of  buoyancy  of  spirit  with  moods  of 
gloom  ;  such  tendency  to  contemplation  and  such  power  of  ac 
tion  all  united  in  one  personality.  It  would  be  unfortunate, 
moreover,  to  judge  present  day  executives  and  leaders  by  en- 


184  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

deavormg  to  compare  their  opinions  and  acts  in  detail  with 
those  which  were  characteristic  of  entirely  different  men  and 
conditions.  We  are  living  in  a  very  different  world  from  that 
of  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  For  one  thing,  the  relation 
of  public  men  to  the  merit  system  in  public  office  is  not  that 
of  the  days  of  the  Civil  War;  and  many  questions  are  now 
pressing  which  were  only  faintly  imagined  forty  or  fifty  years 
ago. 

But  nothing  has  outworn  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Lincoln's  leadership.  We  have  the  right  to  demand  in  our 
leaders  equal  sincerity,  disinterestedness,  and  devotion.  We 
have  a  right  to  point  to  his  moderation  as  a  perpetual  stand 
ard,  to  his  conscientious  consideration  of  all  interests  and 
views;  to  his  wise  and  patient  tolerance  and  open-mindedness; 
to  his  freedom  from  rancor  and  avoidance  of  personal  conten 
tion ;  to  his  moral  courage;  to  his  sense  of  justice;  to  his  es 
sential  democracy.  Wre  may  well  ask  of  our  leaders  that  they 
should  imitate  his  manly  attitude  toward  public  opinion;  that 
they  should  disdain  to  poison  its  sources  by  violent  and  un 
proved  assertions  and  by  the  forced  uses  of  our  modern  en 
ginery  of  publicity;  we  may  well  insist  that  they  should  not 
meanly  follow,  nor  falsely  inform  and  selfishly  mold  the  senti 
ment  of  voters;  but  direct  aright  and  to  no  ignoble  ends  the 
opinions  and  the  suffrages  of  the  people.  We  have  a  right 
to  resent  leadership  based  either  upon  conscienceless  advocacy 
of  supposedly  popular  programs,  or — still  more  shameless — 
upon  the  wholesale  use  of  money.  It  is  our  inescapable  duty 
to  warn  against  the  spurious  leadership  that  deals  in  indis 
criminate  denunciation,  awakens  a  feeling  of  class  and  of  class 
hatred,  forgets  the  bonds  of  a  common  citizenship,  spreads 
distrust  and  despisal  of  the  nation,  and  sows  the  very  seeds 
of  anarchy  and  assassination.  We  have  a  right  to  scout  the 
demagogues  who  take  the  name  of  Lincoln  upon  their  lips, 
and  in  their  lives,  and  their  parody  of  leadership  set  at  nought 
every  principle  of  his  nature. 

Our  needs,  our  conditions,  are  different,  but  the  principles 
of  justice  and  of  human  liberty  are  the  same,  now  and  forever. 
In  the  recurring  and  necessary  readjustment  of  laws  and  meth 
ods  in  the  related  realms  of  industry,  of  economics  and  of 
government,  let  us  have  the  respect  for  rights,  the  acknowl 
edgment  of  mutual  duties ;  the  striving  for  justice ;  the  under 
standing  of  humanity,  and  the  love  of  fellowmen  which  makes 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  185 

Lincoln's  leadership,  like  the  leadership  of  Washington,  the 
standard  of  a  patriotism  broader  than  the  confines  of  common 
wealths,  and  fit  for  emulation  and  guidance  throughout  the 
centuries  to  come. 

Let  me  close  with  the  memory  of  a  night  of  the  spring  ot 
the  year  1865,  in  the  time  of  the  blooming  of  lilacs,  as  says 
the  wronderful  poem.  I  was  waiting  in  Philadelphia  for  Lin 
coln's  funeral  train  to  start,  as  I  was  to  accompany  it  to  New 
ark.  I  had  and  have  little  desire  to  look  upon  faces  from 
which  the  light  of  life  is  departed;  but  suddenly  it  came  upon 
me  that  I  had  never  seen  Lincoln  and  must  not  let  go  by  this 
last  chance  to  behold  at  least  the  deserted  temple  of  a  lofty 
soul.  Then  I  found  it  was  too  late;  the  police  had  drawn  their 
line  across  the  path  in  front  of  Independence  Hall.  But  my 
earnest  desire  prevailed — and  I  was  the  last  to  pass  in  by  the 
window  and  behold,  in  a  strange  dazzle  of  lights  and  flowers, 
the  still  features  of  that  face  we  all  now  know  so  well.  Then 
I  went  my  way  into  the  night  and  walked  alone,  northward 
to  the  distant  station.  Soon  I  heard  behind  me  the  wailing 
music  of  the  funeral  dirge.  The  procession  approached;  the 
funeral  train  moved  out  beneath  the  stars.  Never  can  I  for 
get  the  groups  of  weeping  men  and  women  at  the  little  towns 
through  which  we  slowly  passed ;  and  the  stricken  faces  of 
thousands  who,  in  the  cities,  stood  like  mourners  at  the  funeral 
of  a  beloved  father.  Thus  through  grieving  states  was  borne 
the  body  of  the  beloved  chieftain — while  the  luminous  spirit 
and  example  of  Lincoln  the  leader  of  the  people  went  forth  into 
all  the  earth  along  the  pathway  of  eternal  fame. 


186  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY   SAMUEL   FALLOWS,    BISHOP   REFORMED   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH, 
(Read  February  12,  1908.) 


Hero  worship  is  grounded  in  human  nature.  We  want 
excellence  embodied,  ideas  incarnated.  Principles  are  grand, 
but  principled  personalities  are  infinitely  grander. 

We  may  think  in  the  abstract,  but  we  love  in  the  con 
crete.  We  may  throw  a  halo  of  self-created  splendor  about  our 
hero,  and  idealize,  and  well  nigh  divinize,  the  departed  great 
one,  but  it  is  simply  the  homage  involuntarily  paid  to  the  in 
herent  dignity  of  our  own  being.  It  is  the  bringing  out  of  the 
best  that  is  within  us.  It  is  only  letting  fly  the  angel  that 
waits  with  folded  wings  to  be  set  free  in  the  innermost  sanct 
uary  of  every  human  soul. 

History,  it  has  been  declared,  is  but  the  biography  of  great 
men,  and  an  institution  the  lengthened  shadow  of  a  single 
man;  for  "every  true  man  is  a  cause,  a  country  and  an  age." 
About  one  such  man,  whose  name  is  on  our  lips  tonight,  gather 
some  of  the  most  magnificent  chapters  in  the  annals  of  time. 

Born  in  poverty  and  raised  in  obscurity,  Lincoln  proved, 
by  his  triumphant  ascent,  that  circumstances  are  not  the  mas 
ters,  but  the  servants  of  man.  They  are  not  the  creators,  but 
the  mere  conditions  of  the  all  conquering  mind. 

Lincoln  was  emphatically  the  child  of  the  people  and  the 
man  of  the  people.  Sprung  from  their  loins,  he  was  never 
separated  from  them  by  distance  of  official  position.  The 
simplicity  and  heartiness  of  his  earlier  life  of  the  woods,  the 
prairies,  and  the  river  were  never  spoiled  by  the  stiffness  and 
formality  of  an  imported  court  etiquette.  No  man  among  us 
ever  captured  so  completely  the  popular  imagination,  and  won 
so  enthusiastically  and  enduringly  the  popular  heart.  Mil 
lions  in  reverence  will  always  bow  at  his  feet. 

"Character,  the  diamond  that  scratches  every  other  stone," 
was  of  the  purest  quality  in  him.  Napoleon  schooled  his  looks, 
and  discharged  his  face  of  expression  that  no  man  might  read 
his  thoughts.  But  our  Lincoln  needed  no  such  veil  over  his 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  187 

rugged  features  to  hide  that  honest  soul,  which  he  could  so 
fearlessly  throw  open  to  the  gaze  of  angels  or  of  men. 

Grant  was  the  world's  leader  in  war  without  an  oath ;  and 
Lincoln,  the  world's  leader  of  all  leaders  without  deceit. 
His  honesty  was  so  pure,  so  transparent,  that  friend  and  foe 
were  compelled  by  the  might  of  its  irresistible  majesty  to  bend 
before  it. 

"Shame  was  ashamed  to  sit  upon  his  brow, 
For  'twas  a  throne  where  honor  fair  was  crowned 
Sole  monarch  of  the  universal  world." 

With  "Aristides  the  Just"  will  go  down  through  all  the 
ages,  "Honest  Old  Abe."' 

Hope,  the  prophet  in  every  heart,  was  king  and  priest  be 
sides  in  his.  It  ruled  his  life  and  consecrated  his  deeds.  Other 
men  turned  their  backs  in  despair  on  the  republic's  future;  he, 
through  the  densest  darkness,  saw  with  steadfast  gaze  the 
splendor  of  the  coming  day. 

To  some  of  his  contemporaries  he  was  as  "a  root  out  of 
dry  ground,"  and  there  was  "no  beauty  that  they  should  de 
sire  him."  But  if  the  soul  of  a  seraph  dwelt  in  the  form  of 
a  satyr  in  glorious  old  Socrates,  in  the  ungainly  figure  of  Lin 
coln  dwelt  the  resplendent  beauty  of  virtue  unexcelled  in  liv 
ing  man  before. 

Many  could  not  comprehend  the  blending  of  mirthfulness 
with  the  most  serious  thoughtfulness — the  twin  elements  of 
his  innermost  being,  which  in  alternate  succession,  were  seen 
in  the  play  and  repose  of  his  face.  They  forgot  that  "a  sense 
of  the  ludicrous  is  always  essential  to  prevent  us  from  becom 
ing  ridiculous."  Lincoln  used  this  sense  with  rarest  skill,  and 
with  the  deepest  reason. 

The  carping  critics  around  him  heard  with  ill  concealed 
impatience,  on  important  occasions,  what  was  to  them  an  ill- 
timed  story.  They  were  simply  blind  to  the  profoundest 
philosophy  of  human  nature.  They  were  ignorant  of  the  sur 
passing  greatness  of  the  man  who  was  thus  enabled  to  carry 
the  superhuman  load  heaped  upon  him,  which  else  would  have 
crushed  out  his  very  existence. 

Lincoln  had  supreme  self-reliance,  "that  iron  string  to 
which  all  hearts  vibrate,"  and  yet  was  not  self-willed.  Men 
used  to  talk  of  "masters"  in  his  cabinet,  but  all  the  masters 
there  combined  could  not  move  that  one  master  from  his 


188  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

purpose,  when  he  felt  duty  was  at  stake.  It  was  of  these 
minor  things  that  he  used  playfully  to  say;  "I  have  no  in 
fluence  with  this  administration."  In  non-essential  things  he 
was  as  pliable  as  a  reed;  in  essential  things,  as  immovable 
as  the  everlasting  hills.  Other  men  were  trying  to  hurry  the 
march  of  progress,  and  demanding  that  the  supreme  action 
of  his  life  should  be  taken.  He  said,  "I  wait  on  Providence 
and  will  not  force  events."  He  waited  until  the  hour  of  high 
noon  in  American  history  had  struck,  and  then,  with  the  sweep 
of  his  pen,  sent  a  whole  race  to  freedom  and  to  fortune. 

He  rose  to  the  height  of  every  occasion,  and  yet  in  doing 
so  it  was  easy  to  see  "that  half  his  strength  he  put  not  forth." 
He  knew,  while  using  every  plea  for  peace  which  human  per 
suasiveness  could  prompt,  that  the  rebellion  could  not  be  put 
down  with  rose  and  lavender  water.  He  knew  it  would  not 
answer  to  use  the  rap  of  a  kid-covered  knuckle  or  the  button 
hole  touch  of  a  superannuated  remonstrance,  as  some  desired, 
but  the  fist  of  authority  rimmed  with  iron.  And  so  we 
sang:  "We  dare  not  look  behind  us  but  steadfastly  before. 
We  are  coming ;  we  are  coming ;  our  Union  to  restore.  We  are 
coming,  Father  Abraham — one  hundred  thousand — three  hun 
dred  thousand — six  hundred  thousand  more."  And  we  would 
have  gone  on  singing  if  need  be.  "Still  there's  more  to  fol 
low." 

Politics  with  Lincoln  was  righteousness  guided  by  com 
mon  sense ;  and  a  politician  lacking  either  can  never  become 
a  statesman.  Lincoln,  as  a  consummate  statesman,  had  at  last 
to  call  out  two  hundred  thousand  blacks  in  blue,  to  make  pos 
sible  "the  Union  of  the  states  forever."  His  daring  action 
caused  an  entire  revision  of  American  arithmetic  in  which 
one  was  to  count  one,  whether  the  merchant  millionaire  in 
his  city  counting  room,  or  the  liberty  loving  son  of  Erin,  com 
ing  from  his  native  soil  to  raise  corn  for  his  pigs  in  some  of 
the  impassable  streets  and  alleys  of  Chicago;  whether  the 
Southern  planter  on  his  broad,  paternal  acres  or  the  dusky 
laborer  who  whitened  his  fields  with  the  snow  of  the  cotton 
harvest. 

Lincoln,  who  always  glorified  manhood  and  recognized 
fitness  for  place,  could  not  forget  his  obligation  to  the  colored 
people,  whom  we  cannot  consider  as  aliens  among  us.  Our 
soldier  president,  General  Grant,  did  not  forget  it:  William 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  189 

McKinley,  our  great  peacemaker,  of  blessed  memory,  did  not 
forget  it;  our  strenuous  young  president,  Theodore  Roose 
velt  will  not  forget  it;  and  President  Taft  (or  Cannon,  or  Fair 
banks,  or  La  Follette)  must  not  forget  it. 

Without  compassing  the  realm  of  literature,  Lincoln  yet 
went  confessedly  to  the  head  of  all  masters  of  English  ex 
pression  and  threw  all  classic  diction  into  the  shade.  In  him 
the  quality  of  mercy  was  not  strained.  It  was  the  passion  of 
his  being  to  forgive  and  reinstate.  His  gentleness  lay  at  the 
heart  of  his  greatness,  as  it  does  at  the  heart  of  every  great 
man.  It  was  this  conception  of  gentleness  which  made  quaint 
George  Herbert  says  of  the  greatest  of  all  of  women  born: 
"Christ  was  the  first  true  gentleman  that  ever  breathed."  In 
on  of  the  ablest  English  journals  it  was  written  of  Lincoln's 
last  message : 

"It  is  the  most  remarkable  thing  of  the  sort  ever 
pronounced  by  any  president  of  the  United  States. 
Its  Alpha  and  its  Omega  is  Almighty  God,  the  God  of 
Justice  and  the  Father  of  Mercies,  who  is  working 
out  the  purposes  of  His  love.  It  is  invested  with  a 
dignity  and  a  pathos  which  lift  it  high  above  every 
thing  of  the  kind  in  the  Old  World  or  in  the  New.  'With 
malice  towards  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in 
the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive 
to  finish  the  work  we  are  in,  to  bind  up  the  nation's 
wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have  borne  the 
battle,  and  for  his  widow  and  orphans,  to  do  all  which 
may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace 
among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations.'  ' 

My  comrades,  companions  and  friends,  in  what  more  fitting 
language  can  we  consecrate  ourselves  to  the  momentous  and  undy 
ing  work  of  the  Republic.  These  words  of  Lincoln  should  be  writ 
ten  in  letters  of  gold  and  placed  in  the  White  House  for  every 
administration  to  read  and  recognize. 

"Freedom's  battle  once  begun 
Is  bequeathed  from  sire  to  son." 

Some  men  said  "Liberty  with  or  without  the  Union,"  but 
Abraham  Lincoln  said,  "The  Union  with  or  without  slavery."  He 
was  right  and  they  were  wrong.  For  he  knew,  after  that  first 


190  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

shot  on  Sumter,  that  with  the  Union,  slavery  had  nothing  to  hope, 
ar,d  without  it,  it  had  nothing  to  fear.  That  grip  of  his  on  the 
Union  was  trie  grip  of  gravitation — the  grip  of  death.  Nay,  it  was 
the  grip  of  life,  never  to  be  unloosed  by  the  hand  of  either  slavery 
or  secession. 

In  these  days  of  conflict  between  capital  and  labor  and  between 
the  upholders  and  contemners  of  law,  the  language  of  Lincoln  is 
most  timely : 

"Nowhere  in  the  world  is  presented  a  government  of 
so  much  liberty  and  equality.  To  the  humblest  and  poor 
est  among  us  are  held  out  the  highest  privileges  and  posi 
tions.  The  present  moment  finds  me  at  the  White  House, 
yet  there  is  as  good  a  chance  for  your  children  as  there 
was  for  my  father's.  Again  I  admonish  you  not  to  be 
turned  from  your  stern  purpose  of  defending  our  beloved 
country  and  its  free  institutions  by  any  arguments  urged 
by  ambitious  and  designing  men. 

"To  save  these  institutions  for  our  children,  to  keep 
these  paths  of  privilege  and  preferment  open  to  all,  there 
must  be  no  despotisms  here,  not  even  for  beneficent  ends. 
Workingmen  want  no  other  weapons  than  liberty  and 
light.  By  peaceful  and  orderly  measures  they  will  the 
more  speedily  and  surely  gain  the  ends  they  seek;  by  any 
other  measures  they  will  undermine  and  shatter  the  civil 
structure  which  is  the  shelter  and  the  defense  of  all  that 
they  hold  dear." 

Much  has  been  said  about  Mr.  Lincoln's  relation  to  re 
ligion.  But  one  thing  is  sure;  he  was  neither  an  atheist  nor 
an  agnostic.  He  was  as  profound  a  believer  in  the  power  of 
prayer  as  the  most  orthodox  Christian.  His  request  for  the 
prayers  of  his  neigh'bors  and  friends  as  he  left  Springfield  to 
assume  the  presidency  proves  it.  His  visit  to  General  Sickles 
when  this  hero  was  wounded  confirms  it. 

The  general  tells  in  his  own  graphic  way  the  story  of  his 
interview  with  the  president : 

"It  was  on  the  5th  day  of  July,  1863,  that  I  was 
brought  to  Washington  on  a  stretcher  from  the  field 
of  Gettysburg.  Hearing  of  my  arrival,  President  Lin 
coln  came  to  my  room  and  sat  down  by  my  bedside. 
He  asked  me  about  the  great  battle,  and  when  I  told 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  191 

him  of. the  terrible  slaughter  the  tears  streamed  from 
his  eyes.  I  asked  him  if  he  had  doubted  the  result. 
He  said,  'No.'  Then  he  continued: 

"  'This  may  seem  strange  to  you,  but  p.  few  days 
ago,  when  the  opposing  armies  were  converging,  I 
felt  as  never  before  my  utter  helplessness  in  the  great 
crisis  that  was  to  come  upon  the  country.  I  went  into 
my  own  room  and  locked  the  door.  Then  I  knelt 
down  and  prayed  as  I  never  did  before.  I  told  God 
that  He  had  called  me  to  this  position;  that  I  had 
done  all  that  I  could  do,  and  that  the  result  was  now 
in  His  hands ;  that  I  felt  my  own  weakness  and  lack 
of  power,  and  that  I  knew  that  if  the  country  was  to 
be  saved,  it  was  because  He  so  willed  it.  When  I 
went  down  from  my  room,  I  felt  that  there  could  be 
no  doubt  of  the  issue.  The  burden  seemed  to  have 
rolled  off  my  shoulders,  my  intense  anxiety  was  re 
lieved,  and  in  its  place  came  a  real  sense  of  trustful 
ness,  and  that  was  why  I  did  not  doubt  the  result  of 
Gettysburg. 

"  'And,  what  is  more,  Sickles,'  he  continued,  'I  be 
lieve  that  we  may  hear  at  any  moment  of  a  great  suc 
cess  by  Grant,  who  has  been  pegging  away  at  Vicks- 
burg  for  so  many  months.  By  tomorrow  you  will 
hear  that  he  has  won  a  victory  as  important  to  us  in 
the  West  as  Gettysburg  is  in  the  East.'  Then,  turn 
ing  to  me,  he  said:  'Sickles,  I  am  in  a  prophetic 
mood  today,  and  I  know  that  you  will  get  well.'  'The 
doctors  do  not  give  me  that  hope,  Mr.  President/  I 
said ;  but  he  answered  cheerfully,  'I  know  you  will  get 
well,  Sickles.'  ' 

The  supreme  mission  of  the  Man  of  Galilee  was  reflected 
in  the  subordinate  mission  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  For  he  could 
reverently  say  of  the  Father  of  the  human  soul,  "He  hath  sent 
me  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  deliverance  to 
the  captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are 
bound." 

The  most  exquisite  tribute  to  his  noble  attributes  was  the 
wreath  at  his  funeral,  sent  from  Boston  by  the  sister  of  a  sol 
dier  boy  he  had  pardoned  when  condemned  to  death  for  sleep 
ing  at  his  post.  It  was  justly  placed  directly  above  that  heart  so 


192  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

cruelly  stilled  in  death,  which  beat  only  with  love  to  mankind. 

The  very  hem  of  Lincoln's  garment  is  now  a  priceless  relic. 
The  out-of-style  hat  he  w^ore  is  regarded  more  highly  than  the 
begemmed  circlet  which  decks  a  monarch's  brow.  A  splin 
ter  from  the  rail  he  split  is  worthy  of  the  choicest  adorning  of 
richest  gold.  If  Milton  could  aver,  "Scipio  was  the  height  of 
Rome,"  we  can  aver  "Lincoln  was  the  height  of  America." 

And  yet,  my  comrades  and  companions,  it  was  divinely  or 
dained  that,  without  the  splendid  galaxy  of  military  and  naval 
heroes  that  gathered  about  him,  his  unique  position  could  not 
have  been  attained,  nor  his  immortal  work  performed.  His  pen 
wrote  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  but  the  swords  of  a 
Grant,  a  Sherman,  a  Sheridan,  a  Logan,  a  Thomas,  and  othef 
great  leaders,  with  the  mighty  host  of  the  boys  in  blue,  re 
wrote  it,  their  cannon  thundered  it,  their  musketry  echoed  it, 
their  bayonets  punctuated  it,  and  Appomattox  put  the  final,  ir 
revocable  Amen  of  God  and  Man  upon  it.  But  as  great  as 
some  of  these  men  were,  matchless  as  each  of  them  was  in  his 
sphere,  they  were  but  the  superb  setting  of  that  priceless  jewel 
in  America's  keeping,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

He  still  lives  "For  him  all  doors  are  flung  wide, 
Him  still  all  tongues  greet,  and  honors  crown, 
All  eyes  follow  with  desire." 

Through  God's  good  providence,  he  made  the  old  prophecy 
of  Ancient  Israel  true  of  our  own  American  Israel,  "Thou  shalt 
also  be  a  crown  of  glory  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord  and  a  royal 
diadem  in  the  hand  of  thy  God." 

Kentucky  gave  Lincoln  birth,  and  cradled  him  in  her  arms ; 
Indiana  led  him  up  to  early  manhood;  Illinois  then  threw  open 
to  him  every  avenue  to  honor.  We,  Illinoisans  may  then  be 
pardoned  for  saying: 

"Not  without  thy  wondrous   story, 

Illinois,  Illinois, 

Could  be  writ  the  Nation's  glory, 
Illinois,  Illinois." 

Rut  we  know  that  without  the  wondrous  story  of  every 
loyal  state  of  our  undivided  and  indivisible  Union,  we  could 
not  truthfully  apostrophize  tonight  our  peerless,  beloved  coun 
try,  and  say : 

"Columbia,  Columbia,  to  glory  arise, 
The  queen  of  the  world  and  the  child  of  the  skies." 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  193 


ADDRESS. 

BY   HENRY   CHAPMAN   SWEARINGEN,   D.    Dv   PASTOR   HOUSE   OF    HOPE, 

ST.   PAUL. 
(Read  February  8,   1910.) 


I  am  especially  sensible  of  the  privilege  and  the  honor  of  speak 
ing  to  you  on  this  occasion,  when  you  come  together  to  celebrate  the 
birth  of  one  whose  name  will  be  spoken  first  with  veneration  and 
awe  by  all  future  generations  of  Americans.  I  would  not  speak  in 
vidiously,  but  it  does  seem  to  me  that,  tried  by  every  standard  of 
greatness,  judged  by  his  personal  characteristics,  by  the  clearness 
and  correctness  of  his  judgment,  by  the  moral  qualities  of  his 
mighty  heart  no  other  man  who  has  occupied  public  position  in  all 
history  is  worthy  to  be  compared  with  Abraham  Lincoln.  To  stand 
next  to  Lincoln  is  sufficient  glory  for  any  man,  so  brilliant  is  the 
lustre  of  his  fame.  There  are  other  men  whose  motives  have  been 
as  pure;  whose  patriotism  was  as  devoted;  other  men  who  set  be 
fore  them  high  ideals,  and  strove  earnestly  and  persistently  to  at 
tain  to  them.  But  it  is  my  sober  conviction — not  the  utterance  of 
this  moment  inspired  by  the  occasion — and  I  think  it  will  be  writ 
ten  down  as  the  calm  verdict  of  history,  that  Abraham  Lincoln  is 
the  typical  American  citizen,  and  that  he,  as  no  other  character — 
and  that  it  saying  much — will  personalize  the  qualities  that  the 
American  people  delight  to  honor. 

Abraham  Lincoln  answers  to  three  tests  of  greatness,  at  least — 
possibly  to  many  others.  The  most  severe  test,  probably,  that  we 
can  apply  to  any  character  that  has  claim  to  a  place  in  history  is. 
whether  or  not  its  lustre  fades  with  the  passing  of  time.  Real 
greatness  lives.  With  probably  a  national  disposition  towards 
fulsomeness  it  is  quite  common  with  us,  while  the  memory  of  a 
man's  life  and  deeds  is  still  fresh,  to  speak  of  him  as  one  whose 
fame  is  undying,  and  whose  name  will  be  remembered  for  gen 
erations.  But  history  fulfills  very  few  such  predictions.  There 
are  few  men  who  really  grow  upon  the  generations  as  they  come 
and  go.  Such  men  are  in  a  class  alone — and  foremost  among 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

those  who  have  borne  the  American  name  and  had  a  part  in  Am 
erican  affairs,  is  Abraham  Lincoln  . 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  surprise  to  his  generation.  He  is  more 
of  a  surprise  to  the  present  generation.  It  is  only  recently  that  we 
have  begun  to  appreciate  the  quality  of  his  genius.  We  have 
passed  a  sufficient  distance  from  him  to  study  him  in  true  per 
spective.  Now  we  are  able  to  relate  his  life  and  career  to  the  events 
preceding  his  entrance  upon  the  stage  of  action,  and  also  to  measure 
his  services  by  their  results.  The  generation  that  lives  to-night 
and  is  taking  its  part  in  the  affairs  of  this  day  thinks  more  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  than  the  generation  to  which  he  belonged ;  and 
our  children  who  are  yet  in  their  infancy,  when  another  half  cen 
tury  shall  have  rolled  around  will  be  gathering  as  we  gather  to 
night,  to  pay  honor  to  the  memory  of  the  mightiest  of  all  Americans. 
That  is  a  sure  test  of  greatness. 

He  responds  to  another  test  of  greatness.  He  created  ideals. 
There  are  some  men  who  have  figured  in  our  national  affairs,  who 
are  justly  entitled  to  rank  as  great  men,  because  of  the  quality 
of  their  genius.  Some  of  them  were  soldiers  leading  the  armies 
upon  the  field  of  battle,  and  among  them  could  be  mentioned  tonight 
names  that  stand  with  the  foremost  in  the  history  of  military  en 
deavor.  Some  were  statesmen  who  assisted  in  guiding  the  affairs 
of  the  Nation  in  the  day  of  our  country's  trial.  Some  were  jurists 
who  pointed  out  for  us  the  basic  principles  upon  which  the  nation 
was  founded  and  by  which  true  national  life  may  be  conserved. 
But  the  final  test  of  greatness — that  which  will  awaken  someThing 
more  than  admiration  for  genius,  that  which  will  win  the  hearts 
of  men  and  enshrine  a  character  in  their  loving  regard,  so  that 
their  love  goes  out  to  him  as  to  a  friend  after  he  has  long  passed 
away — is  to  create  for  men  the  ideals  of  their  own  living.  Wash 
ington  did  it.  He  has  set  a  mark  for  high  minded,  dignified,  un 
swerving  patriotism.  Although  we  do  not  feel  so  near  to  him 
as  to  Lincoln,  although  a  man  of  entirely  different  temperament — 
yet  Washington  lives  tonight  in  the  memory  of  a  grateful  country, 
because  he  has  created  an  ideal  for  American  citizenship.  And  so 
has  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  has  taught  men  as  no  other  has  taught, 
how  American  citizens  should  live.  He  has  given  us  a  conception 
of  civic  duty.  He  has  shown  us  civic  ideals.  He  has  warmed  our 
hearts  with  the  tenderness  of  his  own.  He  has  blessed  our  lives 
with  the  richness  of  his  moral  qualities  as  with  the  glory  of  his 
intellectual  attainments.  The  children  in  our  schools  are  properly 
pointed  to  Abraham  Lincoln  as  the  ideal  American  citizen. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  195 

He  fulfills  a  third  test  of  greatness,  and  that  is :  he  knew  how 
to  gather  about  him  men  who  were  worth  while.  Many  men  who 
have  been  placed  in  positions  somewhat  similar  to  those  in  which 
Lincoln  found  himself  when  he  assumed  the  duties  of  the  presidency, 
have  failed  because  they  were  either  not  able  to  discern  commanding 
qualities  in  the  men  they  needed,  or  did  not  possess  the  diplomacy, 
the  skill  and  the  warm  qualities  of  heart  which  enabled  them  to  labor 
successfully  with  such  men.  Abraham  Lincoln's  cabinet  will  be 
famous  as  long  as  American  history  is  known — great  names  they 
have  and  worthy.  Not  often  has  it  been  true  if  ever,  that  a  president 
has  had  about  him  a  triumvirate  like  Seward  and  Chase  and 
Stanton.  Not  many  presidents  could  have  worked  successfully 
with  men  of  such  commanding  abilities,  such  strong  wills  and  de 
termined  convictions.  William  M.  Everts,  in  his  Memorial  Ora 
tion  upon  Chief  Justice  Chase,  said,  speaking  of  Lincoln  and  Seward 
and  Chase,  that  had  either  of  the  others  been  president,  the  country 
would  have  lost  the  services  of  the  other  two.  Only  Lincoln 
could  hold  together  that  company  of  mighty  men,  and  control  them 
without  commanding  them,  turning  their  thoughts  and  their  abil 
ities  into  channels  that  led  to  the  salvation  of  the  Nation. 

We  have  said  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  surprise.  If  you  take 
his  life  and  study  him  as  an  orator,  if  you  study  him  as  a  lawyer,  if 
you  study  him  as  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  and  navy 
of  the  United  States,  if  you  study  him  as  a  statesman  who  was 
obliged  to  mark  out  great  policies  when  he  had  no  precedents  to 
follow,  you  are  always  meeting  with  surprises.  And  yet  it  is  not 
so  remarkable;  Lincoln  believed  that  he  had  been  raised  up  by  a 
mighty  providence  and  weighted  with  responsibility  for  the  salva 
tion  of  the  Nation.  And  men  of  that  type  have  always  been  sur 
prises. 

When  you  study  his  ancestry,  honorable  but  not  distinguished ; 
when  you  think  of  his  life  in  the  Western  woods,  of  the  pioneer 
conditions  under  which  he  was  reared ;  when  you  think  of  him  be 
hind  the  counter  in  a  country  grocery  store,  where  one  of  the  chief 
commodities  of  trade  was  corn  whiskey;  when  you  think  of  him 
on  the  Hat  boat  and  remember  all  the  environments  of  that  man's 
youth,  the  scanty  schooling  he  had,  the  marvel  of  it  is  that,  when 
lie  came  to  take  up  the  burden  of  this  mighty  duty,  he  was  one  of 
the  chastest  and  most  gifted  of  orators  in  our  annals,  one  of  the 
mightiest,  if  not  the  mightiest  statesmen  and  lawyers,  that  the 
Nation  has  yet  produced.  A  surprise  I  say! 


196  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

As  we  read  his  speeches,  so  full  of  noble  sentiments,  expressed 
in  language  that  is  so  brief  and  epigrammatic  as  to  be  almost 
proverbial ;  when  we  think  of  the  manner  in  which  he  grapples  with 
the  great  constitutional  questions  which  came  to  the  fore  at  that 
time — we  wonder  how  any  such  good  thing  could  have  come  out 
of  Nazareth.  It  is  indeed  a  tribute  to  the  surpassing  genius  of  this 
man,  that  he  came  up  from  such  a  lowly  origin,  and  to-night  oc 
cupies  a  position  of  unrivaled  glory  in  the  history  of  the  Nation. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  particularly  distinguished,  both  by  his 
insight  and  by  his  foresight.  He  knew  more  than  other  men.  It 
was  a  sort  of  intuition  with  him.  He  had  the  gift  of  correct  analy 
sis  and  of  clear,  definite  expression  in  a  remarkable  degree.  Time 
and  again  he  was  brought  face  to  face  with  situations  and  was  called 
upon  to  solve  problems  that  were  perplexing  the  greatest  minds 
of  his  day.  He  always  knew  how  to  call  for  advice  from  those 
who  were  competent  to  give  it;  but  after  having  read  the  opinions 
submitted  to  him  on  such  occasions,  one  wonders  what  the  man's 
final  decision  will  be;  and  yet,  when  that  decision  is  studied,  you 
wonder  still  more  that  all  his  advisors  had  not  seen  the  matter  as 
he  saw  it. 

In  his  famous  debates  with  Douglas,  his  great  rival  in  Illinois, 
Lincoln's  triumph  was  due  to  his  insight  and  his  foresight.  Lincoln 
saw  the  point,  and  he  knew  how  to  state  it.  When  he  was  called  to 
the  presidency,  Lincoln,  of  all  men  of  that  day,  understood 
the  situation  that  confronted  him.  He  said  to  his  neighbors  as 
he  \vas  leaving  Springfield — and  he  repeated  the  sentiment  on  a 
number  of  occasions  during  that  trip  to  Washington  and  at  his 
first  inauguration  also — that  there  had  fallen  to  his  lot  a  task 
mightier  than  that  which  fell  to  the  lot  of  George  Washington.  He 
knew  the  issues  of  the  future;  knew  all  that  was  involved  in  that 
mighty  struggle.  Those  of  you  who  are  familiar  with  the  history 
will  not  forget  the  divided  councils  of  that  generation.  Committees 
of  both  houses  of  congress  were  appointed  and  almost  as  many 
compromises  suggested  as  there  were  members  of  these  commit 
tees,  scarcely  any  two  of  them  agreeing.  Have  you  ever  tried  to 
consider,  gentlemen,  what  would  have  been  the  result  for  the  coun 
try,  had  not  there  been  placed  at  the  helm  a  man  whose  judgment 
was  sound,  and  whose  foresight  was  penetrating?  On  all  sides  men 
were  urging  upon  Lincoln's  attention  subordinate  issues.  Lincoln 
saw  the  main  issue,  and  he  refused  to  turn  his  eye  from  it.  He  could 
not  be  driven  from  it  by  the  threats  of  his  enemies  nor  persuaded 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  197 

by  blandishments  of  others.  He  set  before  him  the  preservation 
of  the  Federal  Union,  and  no  other  question  was  allowed  to  rise  to 
equal  dignity  in  the  thought  of  that  mighty  leader.  When  the 
question  of  slavery  came  forward  Lincoln  was  calm,  unmoved, 
steady  bearing  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  storm  with  perfect 
poise,  determined  that  no  other  issues  should  displace  that  before 
him — the  preservation  of  the  Union. 

I  think  Lincoln's  training  as  a  lawyer  had  something  to  do  with 
this  gift  that  he  displayed  in  such  high  degree.  Of  course,  it  was 
a  gift,  but  one  that  had  been  carefully  developed.  Lincoln's  career 
as  a  lawyer  was  of  a  character  which  compelled  him  to  be  an  inde 
pendent  thinker.  The  young  lawyers  of  that  day  if  1  am  correctly 
informed  followed  an  entirely  different  practice  from  that  which 
now  prevails.  They  were  obliged  to  do  so.  These  men  relied  on 
tlieir  own  resources;  they  were  required  to  study  the  principles  of 
the  law  and  in  that  study  developed  their  analytical  powers.  Those 
men  were  not  following  precedents.  They  were  the  men  who  made 
precedents;  and  that  kind  of  training  served  Lincoln  well  when  he 
faced  his  heavy  responsibilities.  He  was  obliged  to  settle  great 
constitutional  questions,  such  as  had  never  been  presented  to  another 
president — such  questions  as  the  right  of  the  executive  to  suspend 
writ  of  Habeas  Corpus,  the  right  of  the  national  government  to 
coerce  a  state,  and  that  raised  at  the  time  the  state  of  West  Vir 
ginia  was  admitted  into  the  Union.  This  man  was  blazing  a  new 
trail.  As  great  questions  as  ever  confronted  the  legal  minds  of 
this  Nation  were  presented  to  Abraham  Lincoln  without  precedents 
which  he  might  follow ;  and  had  he  not  been  a  lawyer  of  original 
genius,  of  initiative,  of  independence,  of  clear  insight  and  logical 
mind,  he  never  would  have  been  able  to  define  the  policies  which 
he  adopted  and  followed.  Take  for  instance,  the  case  of  the  ad 
mission  of  West  Virginia.  One  member  of  his  cabinet  had  resigned, 
of  the  six  remaining,  he  asked  opinions  as  to  two  questions :  Is  the 
admission  of  West  Virginia  under  the  circumstances  constitutional? 
If  constitutional,  is  it  advisable?  His  cabinet  divided  equally. 
Chase,  Seward  and  Stanton  advised  him  that  the  admission  of  West 
Virginia  was  constitutional  and  would  be  expedient,  while  Bates, 
Blair,  and  Wells  advised  against  it.  Perhaps,  being  a  layman,  I 
should  not  speak  of  these  things  in  detail.  I  have  read  several  times 
the  opinions  of  these  three  great  ministers  of  Lincoln  as  to  the 
constitutionality  of  this  policy.  Technical  arguments  they  are,  but 
you  feel  yourself  in  another  world  when  perusing  the  opinion  of 


198  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  If  the  members  of  the  legal  profession  and 
jurists  who  are  here  will  pardon  my  saying  it — Abraham  Lincoln 
could  write  opinions  that  a  layman  can  understand — his  decisions 
were  clear ;  he  went  down  to  bed  rock ;  he  presented  his  propositions 
in  such  manner  that  the  average  mind  is  compelled  to  give  assent. 
Probably  a  layman  is  not  entitled  to  pass  an  opinion  upon  Lincoln 
as  a  lawyer,  but  I  venture  to  believe — judging  from  the  opinions 
which  he  wrote  in  his  state  papers — I  venture  to  believe  that  if 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  elevated  to  the  Supreme  Bench  of  the 
United  States,  he  would  have  left  a  record  second  not  even  to  that 
of  the  great  Marshall. 

When  Lincoln  is  considered  as  a  military  genius,  again  one 
must  speak  with  caution,  because  we  are  addressing  those  who  are 
far  better  able  than  ourselves  to  criticise  his  military  policy.  He 
was  w^ise  enough  never  to  attempt  to  give  advice  concerning  what 
1  may  call,  unprofessionally,  the  technique  of  military  affairs.  He 
left  that  to  military  men.  But  probably  when  history  has  been 
written  and  the  final  verdict  transcribed,  future  generations  will 
agree  that  in  questions  of  grand  strategy,  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
one  of  the  foremost,  if  not  the  foremost,  genius  that  guided  in  the 
affairs  of  that  great  war.  Very  often,  as  frequent  study  has  shown, 
Lincoln's  advice  was  far  better  than  that  of  men  to  whose  judgment 
he  deferred. 

It  seems  to  us  that  one  reason  Abraham  Lincoln  had  such 
correct  judgment,  and  was  able  to  state  himself  in  such  simple  and 
clear  language  was,  that  all  that  he  said  was  the  expression  of 
himself.  Lincoln  was  simple  in  his  thinking,  in  his  manner,  in  his 
tastes;  he  was  honest  to  the  core,  intellectually  and  morally.  He 
could  not  be  untrue,  and  that  moral  quality,  communicated  to  his 
intellectual  process,  enabled  him  to  think  without  bias  and  pre 
judice.  He  had  a  heart  and  mind  which  fitted  him  to  realize 
the  magnitude  of  the  task  which  had  been  set  before  him.  He 
sought  public  office  like  other  normal  high-minded  men,  in  an 
honorable  way,  but  I  think  it  can  be  said  of  him  that  no  personal 
distinction  or  advantage  was  ever  permitted  to  influence  his  judg 
ment  when  the  question  was  before  him  of  the  wise  and  safe  policy 
to  be  pursued  in  order  to  save  this  Federal  Union. 

Those  were  great  days,  and  how  grateful  we  ought  to  be  that 
a  great  man  was  called  to  the  helm  at  that  particular  time.  Lincoln 
had  behind  him  a  political  party  that  for  the  first  time  had  come  into 
National  power ;  he  had  behind  him  a  body  of  men,  politically  con- 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  199 

sidered,  composed  of  various,  and  sometimes  discordant,  elements. 
He  was  called  upon  to  assume  the  reins  of  power  just  at  the  time 
several  states  were  declaring  their  independence  of  the  Federal 
government.  To  win  and  to  hold  the  confidence  of  his  party;  to 
develop  public  opinion  in  the  right  direction  and  make  it  a  mighty 
agency  for  crushing  rebellion,  were  giant  tasks  that  few  men  could 
have  borne. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  probably  the  best  politician  who  ever 
filled  the  presidential  chair,  using  that  term  in  the  very  best  sense. 
No  other  president  had  a  keener  sense  of  the  importance  of  public 
opinion.  No  other  president  has  been  more  skillful  in  directing 
public  opinion.  No  other  president  has  been  more  patient  in  waiting 
for  public  opinion  to  mature.  No  other  has  been  more  accurate 
in  his  judgment  as  to  the  proper  moment  when  he  should  speak, 
assured  that  the  sentiment,  the  loyal  sentiment  of  the  Nation,  was 
behind  him  for  defense  and  encouragement. 

The  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  will  long  be  remembered  on  ac 
count  of  these  qualities,  but  I  think  his  greatest  virtue,  and  that 
which  will  chiefly  entitle  him  to  a  \vorthy  place  in  the  regard  of  pos 
terity,  is  his  moral  grandeur.  He  was  a  good  man.  Have  you  ever 
thought  how  little  there  is  in  the  career  of  Abraham  Lincoln  for 
which  posterity  need  apologize?  Do  you  realize  \vhat  it  means  to 
point  the  rising  generation  to  the  career  of  a  man  who  not  only  rose 
to  the  heights  of  genius,  but  who,  in  his  moral  character  and  in  the 
nobility  of  his  patriotic  purpose,  is  worthy  to  be  a  model  for  our 
children  ?  He  never  would  do  what  he  thought  was  wrong.  Never ! 
And  he  always  strove  to  find  what  w^as  right.  The  greatest  word 
with  Lincoln  was  the  word  "right." 

On  one  occasion,  as  you  will  remember,  a  committee  repre 
senting  various  religious  bodies  in  the  City  of  Chicago  called  upon 
Lincoln.  They  were  zealous,  well  meaning,  somewhat  radical  per 
sons.  They  spoke,  of  course  without  the  responsibilities  that  Lin 
coln  felt.  They  requested  him  to  take  advance  ground  on  the  ques 
tion  of  the  abolition  of  slavery,  though  such  a  course  might  involve 
the  main  question  with  which  he  was  dealing.  They  said  to  him  it 
was  the  will  of  God  that  he  should  do.  And  do  you  remember  his 
reply,  in  which  he  expressed  surprise  that  the  will  of  God  should 
have  been  revealed  to  them  and  withheld  from  him,  who  had  the 
responsibility  for  the  decision?  And  said  he,  "No  one  has  struggled 
more  earnestly  to  know  what  the  will  of  God  is  than  I."  And 
closing  that  memorable  reply,  he  uttered  a  sentence  which  alone 


200  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

would  have  made  Abraham  Lincoln  immortal :    "If  I  know  the  will 
of  God,  I  will  do  it."    No  man  can  say  a  greater  thing  than  that. 

I  promised  myself  I  would  not  weary  you  to-night  with  extracts 
from  Lincoln's  speeches  or  writings.  There  is  one  sentiment,  how 
ever,  which  Lincoln  has  left  upon  record,  which  was  not  transcribed 
lor  the  scrutiny  of  men's  eyes,  which,  as  his  private  secretary  says, 
expresses  better  than  anything  else  the  clearness  and  the  candor 
of  Lincoln's  thinking,  and  his  profound  religious  sentiments.  "The 
will  of  God  prevails,"  he  wrote.  "In  great  contests  each  party  claims 
to  act  in  accordance  with  the  will  of  God.  Both  may  be,  and  one 
must  be,  wrong.  God  cannot  be  for  and  against  the  same  thing 
at  the  same  time.  In  the  present  Civil  War  it  is  quite  possible  that 
God's  purpose  is  something  different  from  the  purpose  of  either 
party."  There  is  the  prophet !  "And  yet,  the  human  instrumentalities 
are  of  the  best  adaptation  to  effect  His  purpose.  I  am  almost  ready 
to  say  that  this  is  probably  true,  that  God  wills  this  contest  and 
wills,  that  it  shall  not  end  yet.  By  His  mere  great  power  he  could 
have  either  saved  or  destroyed  the  Union  without  a  content ;  yet, 
the  contest  began ;  and  having  begun,  He  could  give  the  final  victory 
to  either  side  any  day;  yet,  the  contest  proceeds."  He  is  as  great 
as  a  theologian  as  he  was  as  a  lawyer.  I  will  commend  that  medita 
tion  to  any  theologian,  assured  that  the  verdict  will  be  that  the 
correctness  and  soundness  of  Lincoln's  thinking,  aided  by  his  calm, 
unostentatious,  religious  faith,  led  him  to  a  conclusion  which  the 
sound  Christian  judgment  of  the  world  will  affirm.  That  had 
something  to  do  with  his  clear  insight — always  honest,  and  always, 
setting  before  himself  the  right.  Oh,  is  it  any  wonder  we  Idve  this 
•man ! 

Early  he  showed  these  qualities.  Living  down  in  Indiana  in 
a  little  cabin  with  but  three  sides,  and  the  other  open  to  the  winter 
storms,  his  mother  died  and  they  laid  her  away  without  a  word, 
without  Christian  rites.  Three  or  four  months  after  that  a  wander 
ing  clergyman  came  that  way,  and  this  young  lad  took  him  out  in 
the  face  of  the  winter  blasts  to  the  place  where  his  mother  lay  and 
had  him  perform  over  her  the  rites  of  Christian  burial.  It  does 
seem  to  me  that  if  God's  Angels  ever  come  down  to  the  habitations 
of  man  they  must  have  folded  their  wings  at  that  spot  where  the 
little  orphan  boy  knelt  in  the  snow  on  his  mother's  grave.  That  is 
the  man  we  love !  That  is  the  man  who  holds  to-night  the  affection 
of  a  nation !  That  is  the  man,  the  lustre  of  whose  fame  will  become 
more  brilliant  as  the  clays  go  by.  And  so  long  as  our  nation  is 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  201 

permitted  to  live  and  in  a  loyal  and  grateful  sense  pay  honor  to 
those  who  had  part  in  founding  it  and  in  perpetuating  it,  the  name 
cf  Abraham  Lincoln  will  be  held  in  reverential  regard;  and  mothers 
will  take  their  sons,  and  will  read  to  them  the  story  of  his  early 
struggles,  and  of  his  mighty  triumphs,  and  feel  happy  if  they  can 
hope  that  their  children  will  emulate  his  example. 


202  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS. 

BY  ADOLPH  O.   EBERHART,   GOVERNOR  OF  MINNESOTA. 
(Read  February  8,   1910.) 


I  am  sure  there  is  no  one  this  evening  who  expects  me  to  say 
anything  that  would  add  to  the  splendid  eulogy  that  has  been 
uttered. 

It  seemed  to  me,  as  I  listened  to  those  beautiful  songs  of  the 
flag,  that  I  could  imagine  those  beautiful  tones  rising  higher  and 
higher  until  they  touched  the  Heavens,  singing  praises  of  Him,  and 
that  they  were  bringing  before  His  eternal  altars  the  offerings  of  an 
independent  people,  such  as  the  members  of  this  Loyal  Legion, 
whose  love  offerings  do  not  consist  in  tributes  of  praise  and  song,  but 
in  a  noble  character,  in  right  living,  and  in  deeds  of  unselfish  love. 
Let  us  not  forget  that  you  and  I  are  citizens  of  this  great  country, 
the  only  country  in  the  world  that  gives  a  worthy  boy  a  chance — 
the  country  of  Abraham  Lincoln — and  let  us  look  forward  to  this 
Twentieth  Century,  whose  sunrise  has  already  long  filled  our  vision, 
hoping  it  may  be  an  era  of  more  perfect  peace,  happiness,  and  joy, 
when  all  the  world  shall  know  our  country  by  the  blood  and  struggles 
of  the  men  of  '61  and  '65. 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  203 


THE  HEART  OF  LINCOLN. 

BY  LIEUT.   ELL  TORRANCE,   PAST   COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF,   G.   A.   R. 

(February  12,    1902.) 


On  the  1 5th  of  April,  1865,  and  within  a  few  hours  after  the 
death  of  President  Lincoln,  a  little  company  of  ex-army  officers 
assembled  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  and  organized  the  Military 
Order  of  the  Loyal  Legion  of  the  United  States.  On  the  follow 
ing  day,  by  special  resolution,  the  martyred  president  was  enrolled 
as  a  member  of  the  Order  and  from  that  day  to  this  the  name  of 
Abraham  Lincoln  leads  all  the  rest.  Six  members  of  the  Loyal 
Legion  have  held  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  republic — Lin 
coln,  Grant,  Garfield,  Hayes,  Harrison  and  McKinley — and  the 
history  making  period  of  these  men  is  all  embraced  within  the 
memory  of  every  living  soldier  of  the  Civil  War.  Three  of  this 
immortal  group  suffered  a  martyr's  death  and  consecrated  with 
their  life's  blood  the  temple  of  liberty.  *  *  *  The  sons  of 
men  are  like  the  sands  of  the  sea  shore  in  numbers  but  history 
perpetuates  the  memory  of  few. 

The  world  does  not  remember  long;  it  soon  forgets  not  only 
what  men  say,  but  what  they  do.  Nevertheless  the  wondrous  story 
ui  him  whose  memory  we  commemorate  this  evening  will  be  told 
by  eloquent  lips  and  with  ever  increasing  power  as  long  as  the 
republic  endures.  Some  men  dwindle  as  you  approach  them; 
others  who  appear  great  fade  into  insignificance  as  you  study  their 
characters,  while  others  pass  into  oblivion  with  the  lapse  of  time; 
but  not  so  with  Abraham  Lincoln — the.  passing  years  only  disclose 
a  more  beautiful  spirit,  a  more  exalted  character  and  give  deeper 
significance  to  every  act  of  his  life. 

How  humble  his  birth:  No  angels  announced  his  advent — or 
if  they  did,  the  ears  of  men  were  too  dull  to  hear;  but  now  how 
plainly  all  can  discern  that  he  was  a  teacher  sent  of  God  and  divine 
ly  led  from  the  day  of  his  birth  to  the  hour  of  his  martyrdom. 
The  school  in  which  he  was  disciplined  was  one  few  would  care  to 
enter,  and  yet,  from  the  most  obscure  origin,  he  reached  the  highest 
eminence,  and,  once  for  all  demonstrated  the  efficacy  and  bene 
ficence  of  our  free  institutions.  His  vouth  was  crowned  with 


204  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

privations  and  hardships,  and  until  he  reached  man's  estate,  his  feet 
trod  a  narrow  and  cheerless  path. 

Scarcely  three  score  and  ten  years  ago,  if  you  had  drifted  down 
the  Sangamon  River,  you  would  have  found  him  in  the  forests  along 
its  banks.  The  sound  of  an  axe  would  have  been  your  guide  and 
would  have  led  you  into  the  presence  of  one  of  the  youthful  pioneers 
of  the  dreary  frontier  settlements  of  Illinois.  There  in  the  solitude 
of  the  forest  you  would  have  seen  a  tall,  raw-boned  and  awkward 
youth,  friendless  and  poorly  clad;  a  young  backwoodsman,  strong 
in  body  and  manly  of  heart,  undisturbed  by  any  suggestion  that 
the  world  owed  him  a  living;  ready,  able  and  willing  to  pay  in 
the  honest  coin  of  hard  labor  a  full  equivalent  for  all  he  received. 
When  the  evening  shadows  marked  the  close  of  day,  and  the  for 
est  again  relapsed  into  primeval  silence,  great  heaps  of  new  made 
rails  could  be  seen  like  weird  sentinels  on  the  river's  bank,  and 
for  every  three  hundred  of  those  well-made  rails  Abe  Lincoln 
was  entitled  to  receive  one  yard  of  home-spun,  toward  decently 
covering  his  giant  frame. 

But  on  this  occasion  I  wish  especially  to  speak  of  the  heart 
of  Lincoln.  He  was  a  many-sided  man  and  many  elements  were 
mixed  in  him  to  make  him  great,  but  the  one  that  most  endeared 
him  to  his  countrymen  and  to  the  world  was  his  kindly  heart,  his 
broad  charity  and  his  unfailing  sympathy  for  his  fellow  men.  He 
cherished  no  resentments,  and  his  nature  seemed  destitute  of  the 
element  of  harshness.  He  was  made  patient,  if  not  perfect,  through 
suffering.  It  has  been  said  "that  he  was  a  burden  bearer  from  his 
birth  and  that  the  burdens  were  girt  upon  his  spirit  even  more  than 
his  body,  but  while  they  gnarled  the  body  and  bent  it  earthward 
the  spirit  grew  in  strength  and  beauty  and  was  at  no  time  so 
strong  and  beautiful  as  in  the  hour  an  assassin  blew  it  out." 

When  first  inaugurated  president,  sectional  hate  had  well  nigh 
burned  love  out  of  the  hearts  of  men,  but  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
able  to  rise  far  above  the  passions,  hatreds,  and  prejudices  of  the 
hour  and  to  say  to  his  dissatisfied  countrymen,  "We  are  not  enemies, 
but  friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have 
strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection."  And  four 
years  later,  after  the  land  had  been  drenched  with  blood  and  every 
household  was  in  mouring,  he  was  still  able  to  say :  "With  malice 
towards  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right,  as 
God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  to  finish  the  work  we 
are  in,  to  bind  up  the  Nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  205 

have  borne  the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and  for  his  orphan;  to 
do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  lasting  peace 
among  ourselves  and  all  nations."  In  sacred  literature  only  have 
such  utterances  a  parallel. 

But  Lincoln's  heart  was  no  less  courageous  than  it  was  gentle, 
and  while  he  cherished  no  resentments,  he  was  quickly  moved  to 
righteous  protest  in  the  presence  of  injustice.  At  the  age  of  22 
he  visited  New  Orleans  and,  for  the  first  time,  saw  parents  and 
Children  placed  on  the  auction  block  and  sold  as  chattels.  The 
wrong  appealed  to  him  with  tremendous  force  and  with  uplifted 
arm  and  trembling  voice  he  said,  "If  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit 
that  thing,  I  will  hit  it  hard."  This  was  his  first  introduction  to 
slavery  and,  doubtless,  the  day  and  the  hour  when  he  consecrated 
himself  to  the  cause  of  universal  freedom.  But  what  seemed  more 
improbable  than  that  he  would  ever  be  able  to  hit  "that  thing"  a 
blow?  Was  it  not  wrought  into  the  very  framework  of  society 
and  entrenched  in  both  church  and  state ;  was  not  slavery  anchored 
to  the  constitution  and  legalized  by  the  highest  judicial  authority? 
What  could  such  a  youth  hope  to  accomplish?  Who  knew  him  or 
cared  for  him?  Was  he  not  poor,  and  friendless,  and  uneducated, 
and  destitute  of  influence  or  power,  either  social  or  political  ?  Could 
he  by  the  remotest  chance  ever  become  able  to  smite  such  an  in 
stitution?  Nevertheless,  in  the  mysterious  providence  of  God  the 
same  hand  that  was  uplifted  in  solemn  protest  in  the  New  Orleans 
slave  mart,  wrote  the  immortal  emancipation  proclamation  which 
forever  swept  out  of  existence  the  slave  and  the  slave  master  and 
the  slave  mart. 

In  1858  the  same  courageous  heart,  like  "one  crying  in  the 
wilderness,"  boldly  declared  that  "unless  slavery  was  wrong,  noth 
ing  was  wrong;  that  every  man  was  entitled  to  the  fruits  of  his 
own  labor  and  that  no  man  could  justly  live  in  idle  luxury  by  the 
sweat  of  another's  brow."  Lincoln  foresaw  with  clearest  vision 
that  the  conflict  between  freedom  and  slavery  was  irrepressible, 
and  that  one  or  the  other  must  prevail.  He  believed  that  the  gov 
ernment  could  not  permanently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free, 
but  his  courage  never  abated,  nor  did  he  ever  for  a  moment  lose 
faith  in  the  final  triumph  of  the  right.  In  this  faith  he  triumphed 
and  today  "millions  of  men  and  women  and  children  whom  he 
lifted  out  of  the  deepest  darkness,  think  it  no  harm  to  worship 
him." 


206  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

He  had  a  fatherly  heart,  and  the  song  "'We  Are  Coming,  Father 
Abraham/"  was  not  only  patriotic,  but  a  filial  response  to  his  call: 
The  soldiers  loved  him.  In  a  special  sense  they  belonged  to  him 
and  he  to  them.  Their  faith  in  their  commanders  was  sometimes 
shaken,  but  never  in  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  was  the  one  man  in 
whom  they  could  always  trust,  the  one  man  to  whom  they  could 
always  with  confidence  appeal  when  every  other  hope  had  fled. 
Who  that  has  once  heard  can  ever  forget  the  story  of  William 
Scott,  a  private  in  the  Third  Regiment  Vermont  Infantry? 

Scott  was  in  his  teens  and,  writh  his  regiment,  reached  Wash 
ington  soon  after  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run.  He  was  a  farmer's 
boy,  accustomed  to  regular,  sound,  and  healthy  sleep,  and  before 
becoming  inured  to  camp  life  he  volunteered  to  take  the  place  of 
a  sick  comrade  who  had  been  detailed  for  picket  duty.  The  next 
day  he  was  detailed  for  like  service  and  undertook  its  perform 
ance,  but  found  it  impossible  to  keep  awake  two  nights  in  succes 
sion,  and  was  found  asleep  at  his  post.  For  this  offense  he  was 
tried  by  a  court  martial  and  sentenced  to  be  shot.  His  regiment 
was  stationed  near  Chain  Bridge  that  spans  the  Potomac  River, 
connecting  Washington  with  Virginia.  Many  spies  had  succeeded 
in  passing  the  Union  lines,  and  orders  had  been  issued  enjoining 
the  strictest  vigilance  on  the  part  of  officers  and  men.  The  young 
soldier  could  make  no  defense.  He  admitted  that  he  had  done 
wrong,  but  said  he  could  not  have  tried  harder  to  keep  awake,  and 
that  if  he  were  placed  in  the  same  situation  again,  he  could  no 
more  help  falling  asleep  than  he  could  fly.  He  had  anticipated  a 
hard  fight  to  keep  awake  and  at  one  time  thought  of  asking  one 
of  the  boys  to  take  his  place,  but  feared  they  might  think  he  was 
afraid,  so  he  decided  to  "chance  it."  Twice  he  fell  asleep  and 
awoke  while  walking  his  beat,  and  then — he  could  not  remember 
anything  more — all  he  knew  was  that  he  was  sound  asleep  when 
the  guard  came.  Something  must  be  clone,  and  done  at  once,  to 
save  the  boy,  and  the  only  hope  was  the  president.  His  captain, 
who  had  promised  the  mother  to  take  care  of  her  son,  went  with  a 
few  of  his  men  directly  to  the  White  House  and  laid  the  case  be 
fore  the  president.  Little  encouragement  was  given  and  the  men 
went  away  heavy-hearted,  but  the  president  immediately  visited  the 
place  where  the  young  soldier  was  confined  awaiting  execution, 
and  personally  investigated  the  facts  in  the  case.  He  then  saw  the 
young  soldier  and  asked  him  about  his  home,  the  neighbors,  the 
farm  and  where  he  went  to  school.  Finally,  he  inquired  about  his 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES.  207 

mother,  and  when  the  lad  with  trembling  hand  took  her  picture 
from  his  breast  and  showed  it  to  him,  he  said:  "You  ought  to 
be  thankful  that  you  have  such  a  patriotic  mother,"  and  then,  after 
a  moment's  silence,  he  said :  "My  boy,  look  me  in  the  face.  You 
are  not  going  to  be  shot  tomorrow.  I  believe  you  tell  the  truth 
when  you  say  that  you  could  not  keep  awake.  I  shall  trust  you 
and  send  you  back  to  your  regiment,  but  I  have  a  big  bill  against 
yOU — one  that  no  person  in  the  world  can  pay  except  yourself, 
and  if  from  this  day  you  do  your  duty  as  a  soldier,  the  debt  will  be 
paid." 

A  few  months  afterwards  young  Scott  fell,  mortally  wounded, 
at  the  Battle  of  Lees  Mill,  and  his  last  words  were :  "Tell  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  that  I  have  never  forgocten  his  kindness  to  me;  that 
I  have  tried  to  be  a  good  soldier  and  now,  when  dying,  I  again 
thank  him  for  giving  me  a  chance  to  fall  like  a  soldier  in  battle, 
and  not  like  a  coward  by  the  hands  of  my  comrades."  When  the 
message  was  communicated  to  the  president,  a  shade  o£  sorrow 
overspread  his  face  as  he  exclaimed:  "Poor  boy!  poor  boy!  and 
is  he  dead?  and  did  he  send  me  this  message?  I  am  sorry  that  he 
is  dead  for  he  was  a  brave  boy.  I  am  glad  I  interfered.  It  is  as 
great  a  comfort  to  me  as  it  was  to  him." 

Not  long  after  this  he  met  his  life-long  friend  James  Speed 
and  said,  "Why  don't  you  come  and  see  me?  I  want  to  see  some 
body  that  doesn't  want  anything.  Stop  tonight  after  the  recep 
tion  is  over,  and  let  us  have  a  visit."  So  on  that  Thursday  night 
when  the  people  had  gone  away  the  two  men  sat  down  together 
for  a  few  minutes,  then  Speed  arose  and  said :  "Mr.  Lincoln, 
you  are  worn  out  and  must  rest.  I  haven't  the  heart  to  keep  you 
out  of  your  bed,  you  must  rest."  Lincoln  stretched  out  his  long 
arm  and,  placing  his  hand  upon  Speed's  shoulder,  said :  "You 
must  stay  with  me  for  I  never  sleep  Thursday  nights.  Tomor 
row  you  know7  is  execution  day,  and  some  of  the  boys  will  be  shot 
unless  I  sign  their  pardon;  but  the  generals  tell  me  that  to  par 
don  them  will  cost  more  lives,  so  I  cannot  pardon,  but  I  cannot 
sleep  when  I  know  that  tomorrow  they  will  be  shot." 

No  wonder  the  poor  woman  whose  son  had  been  reprieved  by 
the  president,  when  she  came  away  from  his  office,  the  tears  still 
running  down  her  cheeks,  exclaimed  to  her  waiting  friends :  "Oh ! 
how  they  have  slandered  Mr.  Lincoln.  They  told  me  he  was  an 
ugly  man,  but  I  never  saw  a  more  beautiful  face  in  all  my  life-" 


208  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

What  a  priceless  inheritance  to  this  nation  that  he  belonged 
to  the  common  people — that  he  dwelt  among  them,  that  his  sym 
pathies  were  with  them;  that  the  schools  did  not  educate  and  pol 
ish  him  until  he  was  separated  from  them;  that  he  was  as  acces 
sible  in  the  White  House  as  in  the  log  cabin. 

He  had  a  devout  heart.  As  he  left  his  old  home  for  Washing 
ton,  he  said  to  his  neighbors,  "I  go  to  a  greater  task  than  that 
assigned  to  Washington,  and  unless  the  God  that  helped  him  helps 
me,  I  shall  fail,  but  guided  and  sustained  by  him,  I  shall  not  fail — 
I  shall  succeed." 

When  about  to  issue  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  he  said 
in  reply  to  his  great  secretary,  who  doubted  that  the  time  had  fully 
come  for  such  an  important  step,  "I  must  sign  it;  I  told  the  Lord 
I  would."  Seward,  somewhat  startled,  said,  "What  is  that  you 
say,  Mr.  President?"  And  he  replied,  "I  made  a  promise  that  if 
the  Lord  would  give  us  victory  and  the  rebel  army  were  driven  back 
into  Virginia,  I  would  emancipate  the  slaves,  and  I  will  do  it." 
Thirty-one  years  before  he  had  lifted  up  his  hand  towards  heaven, 
and  promised  the  Eternal  God  that  if  he  ever  got  a  chance  to  hit 
that  institution,  he  would  hit  it  hard ;  and  now,  with  a  living  faith 
in  that  God,  he  fulfilled  his  solemn  promise. 

Last  of  all  I  will  speak  of  his  patriotic  heart.  To  him  his  great 
office  meant  service,  not  power,  and  his  highest  ambition  was  to 
serve  his  country.  Promotion  from  peasant  to  president  did  not 
separate  him  from  the  people.  He  never  forgot  that  the  people 
raised  him  to  power,  and  that  for  them  the  service  of  his  life  was 
to  be  rendered.  His  one  supreme  passion  was  the  Union — the 
Union  with  or  without  slavery,  but  always  the  Union.  The  lives 
of  almost  half  a  million  men  were  required  to  save  the  Union,  and 
at  last,  to  make  the  Union  forever  sure,  he  sealed  it  with  his  own 
blood. 

He  \vas  a  patriot  of  the  highest  and  noblest  type.  He  knew 
no  North,  no  South,  no  East,  no  \Vest.  The  rivers  and  mountains 
did  not  divide  his  country,  but  bound  all  parts  of  it  together.  He 
believed  in  the  perpetuity  of  the  republic.  His  great  heart  never 
expressed  a  more  sublime  faith  in  that  perpetuity  or  uttered  a 
grander  prophecy  than  when,  standing  under  the  impenetrable 
clouds  of  impending  war,  he  assured  his  countrymen  that  the  time 
would  come  "when  the  mystic  cords  of  memory,  stretching  from 
every  battlefield  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and  hearth 
stone  all  over  this  broad  land,  would  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the 


LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES.  209 

Union  when  touched  again,  as  surely  they  would  be,  by  the  better 
angels  of  our  natures.';  These  immortal  words  were  spoken  when 
he  was  being  bitterly  assailed,  and  when  the  passions  of  men  were 
like  the  angry  sea  and  their  hearts  were  filled  with  prejudice  and 
hate.  He  always  spoke  in  the  spirit  of  the  broadest  humanity,  "with 
malice  toward  none  and  charity  for  ^all,"  for  he  could  see  what 
many  of  us  could  not  then  see,  that  the  chasm  that  separated  his 
countrymen  could  only  be  bridged  and  the  nation's  wounds  be 
healed  by  the  triumph  of  a  common  brotherhood. 

There  were  giants  in  those  days,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
surrounded  by  a  host  of  great  men — Seward,  Sumner,  Chase,  and 
Stanton,  Grant,  Thomas,  Sherman  and  Farragut,  and  a  countless 
host  of  ''boys  in  blue;"  yet  he  towered  above  them  all,  and  was 
the  incarnation  of  the  virtues  of  all.  In  simplicity  of  faith  and 
strength  of  character,  in  honesty  of  purpose  and  self-surrender  to 
duty,  he  was  and  still  remains  the  highest  product  of  American 
civilization- 
It  has  been  truly  said  that  "he  now  belongs  to  the  ages,"  but, 
best  and  truest  of  all,  he  belongs  to  us.  His  rugged  features  have 
become  transfigured  and  his  face  is  the  most  radiant  that  looks 
out  upon  us  from  the  glorious  past. 

"How  seldom,  in  the  lapse  of  centuries, 
Lives  there  a  man  so  great, 
That  when  he  dies, 
His  record  is  beyond  all  eulogies." 

Ho\v  deep,  sincere  and  constant  should  be  our  gratitude  for  the 
gift  to  this  Republic  of  one,  the  contemplation  of  whose  virtues 
strengthens  every  moral  fiber  of  the  soul  and  confirms  our  faith  in 
the  final  world-wide  triumph  of  the  right. 

"Nature,  they  say,  doth  dote, 
And  cannot  make  a  man 
Save  on  some  worn  out  plan, 
Repeating  as  by  rote : 

For  him  her  old  world  moulds  aside  she  threw, 
And,  choosing  sweet  clay  from  the  breast 
Of  the  Unexhausted  West, 
With  stuff  untainted  shaped  a  hero  new, 
Wise,  steadfast  in  the  strength  of  God,  and  true. 


210  LINCOLN    MEMORIAL    ADDRESSES. 

Great  Captains,  with  their  guns  and  drums 

Disturb  our  judgment  for  the  hour, 

But  at  last  silence  comes; 

These  are  all  gone,  and  standing  like  a  tower, 

Our  children  shall  behold  his  fame, 

The  kindly,  earnest,  brave,  far-seeing  man, 

Sagacious,  patient,  dreading  praise,  not  blame, 

New  birth  of  our  new  soil,  the  first  American." 


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